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Podcast: Download (Duration: 41:52 — 28.7MB)Rick Rule — Gold and gold miners.
Sean Brodrick — QE3 followup.
Mike Swanson — Latest job numbers.

Romney’s 47% Victims More Like 96% Who Get Government Boost

When Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said at a May fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans depend on the federal government for assistance, he was understating his case. It’s closer to 100 percent.Enlarge imageWhen Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said at a May fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans depend on the federal government for assistance, he was understating his case. It’s closer to 100 percent. Photographer: Peter Foley/Bloomberg
10:41Oct. 2 (Bloomberg) -- Republican vice presidential candidate Paul Ryan talks about presidential candidate Mitt Romney's tax plan, fiscal policy and the outlook for his debate with Vice President Joe Biden. Ryan speaks with Peter Cook on Bloomberg Television's "In the Loop." (Source: Bloomberg)Chart: Benefiting from Government ActionNinety-six percent of Americans have benefited from government help at some time, including from breaks in the tax code, according to Suzanne Mettler, a professor of government at Cornell University and John Sides, an associate political science professor at George Washington University.The remaining 4 percent? Most are young adults who don’t qualify for most government programs, they say.“You might get to a point in midlife where you think, ‘I’m one of the earners, not one of the takers,’” Mettler said in an interview. “In fact, your life has long been affected by the social policies you were able to use early in life, such as a Pell grant.”While Medicare and Medicaid -- which covered more than 100 million Americans combined last year -- are the most obvious government benefits along with Social Security, there are many other policies and programs available.These include the tax credits or itemized deductions used by more than 70 percent of filers; Pell grants, which in the 2010-2011 school year aided approximately 9.3 million low-income people, or 36.3 percent of all U.S. undergraduate students, in paying for college; and the G.I. bill, which has been used for educational benefits by 21.9 million veterans from the program’s inception through Sept. 30, 2011.

Tax Breaks

“As the data shows, Romney’s comment managed to offend just about everyone in America,” said Mark McKinnon, a former political adviser to President George W. Bush and one of several Republicans who have distanced themselves from the candidate’s remarks.The 96 percent figure comes from a national survey of 1,400 people conducted in 2008 by the Cornell Survey Research Institute for Mettler. Ninety-six percent of respondents said that at some point in their lives they had benefited from at least one of 21 government social policies. Sixty-five percent said they had used four or more.Romney’s assertion at the Florida fundraiser that 47 percent of Americans view themselves as “victims” dependent on government leaves out the millions more who have taken advantage oftax deductions, which are just another way the government redirects money for public purposes.

Ryan Explanation

http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-10-02/romney-s-47-victims-more-like-96-who-benefit-from-government.html

New Romney ad disputes Obama claim on $5 trillion tax cut

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ORLANDO, FLA.In an effort to combat the Obama campaign's recent attacks on his tax plan, Mitt Romney's campaign is releasing a new TV advertisement on Sunday that accuses the president of distorting the Republican nominee's economic plan - a charge that the Obama campaign says is wrong.The ad, "5 Trillion," says Obama is "not telling the truth about Mitt Romney's tax plan" and focuses on fact checks from both the Associated Press and ABC News that dispute the claim.During the first presidential debate, President Obama referred to Romney's "$5 trillion tax cut" four times.The number comes from a study by the nonpartisan Tax Policy Center that examined Romney's tax proposals - including his plan to reduce federal income tax rates by 20 percent, in addition to eliminating the estate tax and other tax reductions. The center estimated that the lost revenues would total $480 billion by 2015.The Obama campaign used this number to project the cost over a decade and came up with approximately $5 trillion.But as PolitiFact and other fact-checking organizations have pointed out, Romney's tax plan also includes offsetting lost revenue by getting rid of deductions and closing loopholes. Romney himself has said that his tax cuts will be revenue-neutral, though he hasn't specified which deductions or loopholes he'll close - one of the central criticisms that Democrats have lodged against him.Obama deputy campaign manager Stephanie Cutter said during an interview on CNN that when deductions are included, Romney's tax plan "won't be near $5 trillion." The Romney campaign seized on the remarks and included them in their new ad.Additionally, Romney's campaign accuses Mr. Obama of planning to raise taxes on the middle class by $4,000 with his own tax plan. This figure comes from a study by the conservative American Enterprise Institute that Obama campaign spokeswoman Lis Smith called "a partisan distortion of a study that has nothing to do with the president's proposals."