It turns out Colorado's new Republican gubernatorial nominee Bob Beauprez had ol' 47 percent Mitt beat by
two whole years.
On Wednesday, Democrats circulated a little-noticed 2010 video in which Beauprez rails against the 47 percent of the American population who he claims are dependent on government. Sound familiar?
From the Denver Post:
"I see something that frankly doesn't surprise me, having been on Ways and Means Committee: 47 percent of all Americans pay no federal income tax," Beauprez said in the video. "I'm guessing that most of you in this room are not in that 47 percent—God bless you—but what that tells me is that we've got almost half the population perfectly happy that somebody else is paying the bill, and most of that half is you all."
So Mitt wasn't even being original when he lambasted precisely 47 percent of America for being lazy slobs, he was just repeating a much-passed-around conservative trope to that effect. Almost word for word, it seems.
"I submit to you that there is a political strategy to get slightly over half and have a permanent ruling majority by keeping over half of the population dependent on the largesse of government that somebody else is paying for," Beauprez said.
It's still not clear why being too poor to pay federal income tax automatically makes someone "happy that someone else is paying the bill," or why being exempt from federal income tax specifically, as opposed to all the other taxes even the poorest Americans
do pay, is the thing that renders all the dirty little urchins
unclean, but Republicans are certainly dedicated to the bit.