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A Project of The Annenberg Public Policy Center

Who are the 47 Percent?


In a secretly recorded video at a May fundraiser, Mitt Romney told donors that 47 percent of Americans do not pay federal income tax and are “dependent upon the government.” Who are the 47 percent? Deputy Managing Editor Robert Farley explains on WCBS radio that most of them are working people who simply do not earn very much money.

For our article on Romney, see “Dependency and Romney’s 47 Percenters.”