Yes, you. I’m talking to the 47% of Americans who just want to collect their welfare checks and eat bon-bons on the couch while watching Jerry Springer Oprah Winfrey Katie Couric on the teevee. At least, according to Mitt Romney.

“There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it,”
[…]
“[M]y job is not to worry about those people.

Fucking losers who think they’re entitled to luxuries like food and health care and a place to live. Lazy bastards.

You know, when a David Brooks column refers to you as “Thurston Howell Romney,” you’re definitely doing something wrong.

[Romney’s] comment suggests a few things. First, it suggests that he really doesn’t know much about the country he inhabits. Who are these freeloaders? Is it the Iraq war veteran who goes to the V.A.? Is it the student getting a loan to go to college? Is it the retiree on Social Security or Medicare?

It suggests that Romney doesn’t know much about the culture of America. …America remains one of the hardest-working nations on earth. Americans work longer hours than just about anyone else. Americans believe in work more than almost any other people. Ninety-two percent say that hard work is the key to success, according to a 2009 Pew Research Survey.

It says that Romney doesn’t know much about the political culture. Americans haven’t become childlike worshipers of big government. On the contrary, trust in government has declined. The number of people who think government spending promotes social mobility has fallen.

The people who receive the disproportionate share of government spending are not big-government lovers. They are Republicans. They are senior citizens. They are white men with high school degrees. As Bill Galston of the Brookings Institution has noted, the people who have benefited from the entitlements explosion are middle-class workers, more so than the dependent poor.

In a hastily-called press conference, Howell Romney took three whole questions, muttered something about how he was working for everybody and that his comments were “off the cuff” and “not elegantly stated.” He also said – as they always do – that he was taken “out of context” and he demanded the release of the full video.

To which, Mother Jones reporter Adam Serwer tweeted

“Mitt wants the full video huh? Well don’t worry, there’s more to come.”

Be careful what you wish for, Mitt. And how’s about we see some tax returns from a hard-working American like you, huh?

Oh well, time to head off to pick up my food stamps and welfare check. Then it’s off buy a bottle of Mad Dog and some scratch-off lottery tickets.