When Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney spoke at a fundraiser about the 47% of Americans “who are dependent upon government—people who pay no income tax”—he could have been alluding to lots of Louisiana residents, reports The Times-Picayune. Except in one major respect, that is. Romney also told his supporters that such voters, who he said wouldn’t benefit from his proposal to cut income taxes because they don’t pay them, will vote for President Barack Obama “no matter what.” But Louisiana voters are expected to overwhelmingly back Romney in the Nov. 6 election. By several important measures, Louisiana is in the top 10 of states in categories that measure the percentage of adults who don’t pay taxes, or people who receive federal government benefits. And that’s not even including the billions of dollars that flowed into the state after Hurricane Katrina. According to the nonpartisan Tax Foundation, 39% of Louisiana residents who filed tax returns in 2008 didn’t owe any federal income tax, the seventh-highest percentage in the United States. That was largely a result of the Earned Income Tax Credit, a federal law developed in 1975 by Democratic Sen. Russell Long of Louisiana, which gives tax breaks to low-income workers so they can escape poverty. Read the full story here.
Today’s poll question: Do you agree with Mitt Romney’s comments characterizing President Barack Obama’s supporters, which were secretly taped at a Florida fundraiser and made public?
