but then...it wouldn't be stouffer's mac & cheese. just one of over 70 satisfying recipes for one from stouffer's. starts with ground beef, unions, and peppers baked in a ketchup glaze with savory gravy and mashed russet potatoes. what makes stouffer's meatloaf best of all? that moment you enjoy it at home. stouffer's. let's fix dinner. what do you do when you've insulted half the country? your numbers are down and your party is starting to break ranks? if you're mitt romney, you double down. wednesday, 1e79s 19th, and this is "now." joining me today, jonathan chait of "new york" magazine, casey hunt of the associated

press, margaret carlson of bloomberg news, and "the new york times" mark leibovich. while governor romney secretly recorded fund-raising comments amount to yet another scoop on a veritable ice cream sunday of campaign gaffes they happen to be an expedient method to insult massive amounts of people. he portrayed 47% of the country for a bunch of government freeloaders. it takes skill to alienate that many americans in one swoop. if romney instead chosen to vilified every person that watched the super bowl he would reach fewer people. it's larger than the number of people who went to the ballot box and voted in 2010. it's equivalent to brushing off every single person who owns a smartphone. despite writing off a truly staggering number of americans many of whom might be voting for romney in november, the candidate appeared on fox last night to defend his comments at the may 17th fund-raiser. >> well, we were, of course, talking about a campaign and how

he's going to get close to half the vote. >> so, romney's claiming he was talking purely about electoral math. the problem with that defense, of course, is that he wasn't. >> the 47% who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe they are victims, who believe that government has the responsibility to care for them. >> last night romney also tried to recalibrate his definition of the 47%. >> there are a number of retirees, members of the military and so forth who aren't paying taxes and that's as it should be, but i do believe that we should have enough jobs and enough take home pay such that people have the privilege of higher incomes that allow them to be paying taxes. i think people would like to be paying taxes. >> that, too, is likely a losing battle as romney said at the fund-raiser those people will never want anything but dependency. >> these are people who pay no income tax. 47% of americans pay no income taxes. our message of low taxes doesn't connect. >> at least romney can count on

the unqualified support of his vp nominee. >> he was obviously inarticulate in making this point and the point we're trying to make here is under the obama economy, government dependency is and economic stagnation is up. >> you think governor romney regrets saying what he did? >> i think he would have said it differently, that's for sure. the point still stands. >> despite an insistence by his strategist it's still sunny in romney land it doesn't seem to be a good day when you've insulted half the country and your running mate calling your comments inarticulate. casey hunt you have been in romney land, embedded in romney land. >> so to speak. >> what is going on in romney land? this is a bad week that has lasted for almost two months. and yet, a sense of defiance coming from boston. tell us what is going on inside? >> once it came out the sense was really, okay, well, we have to embrace these remarks. we can't run away from them. that's why you've seen over the

last couple days him trying to make this argument that no, while i might have made those comments differently, i didn't misspeak and i was talking about this great divide between on ideology, on who the views, the vision for society itself. it is a message that romney's been repeating over and over throughout the campaign. i had never heard him say it in quite these terms before. >> i guess the -- he seems to have just muddied the waters further in terms of, you know, there's the recording, what he's saying the recording was actually about, when in reality you have the "wall street journal" giving mitt romney a script as to what he should be saying now. you have conservatives saying you could just -- you could try and own this, you can do more for your campaign and here's how you it with a line by line assignment. >> he's been put in the remedial reading class and told how to do it. you know, instead of a dog whistle which casey you must hear all the time on the

campaign trail, inside that room he was using a bull horn. >> right. >> so these are his sentiments. but nobody is supposed to hear them that clearly and that loudly except, you know, perhaps the 1% that was in the room. he couldn't walk away from them, but to hold the press conference, that seems to me to be so foolish. draw more attention and he didn't even use the clarify my remarks. >> right. >> he just went full bore at it. >> i also -- we've talked about this, mark. one of the striking things about that video tape is how comfortable, how eloquent, how confident romney seems behind the closed doors at the fund-raisers surrounded by presumably very wealthy people, and then you look sort of the next day at the press conference where he's speaking this kind of wooden, halting, very measured speak, that where he's clearly uncomfortable. >> right. in one setting he sees himself as playing a home game and in the other playing an away game.

i'm going to disagree with some conventional wisdom. i don't see a lot of personally aggrieved parties to this remarks. i think there are a lot of -- i just haven't talked to people, how dare he say that about me. i'm not going to vote for him. first of all, i would say about 85, 90% of the country doesn't see themselves as victimized or entitled or whatever the words he used. so i mean i do think there is a level of abstraction in that video he can hide in and actually be protected from. obviously the press -- press conferences are never going to be his most comfortable setting. i would personally love him to hold a press conference every day, i would love the president to hold a press conference every day. it's not going to happen. look, this is sort of the hand he's been dealt. >> i don't think it's so much personal agrievement, right, people saying, i'm -- i'm a freeloader or get government subsidies. it's more, what's mitt romney all about? this is i think more of the sort of more destructive part of this narrative, okay, again, mitt romney is this kind of guy who's out of touch, who may be

separating the country, he's a plutcrat, romney's character and less so the american feel public feeling like they've been targeted. >> i agree with mark and wrote a similar thing. what romney is doing is repeating a trick republicans use. say income taxes they think taxes and they think well i pay taxes i'm one of those people. no one is going to think that they're the freeloaders he's targeting like mark said and that's why republicans say income taxes to make people think all taxes. it's a trick that's been going on for a lot of years. but i think you're also right that in some broader sense, this idea that here he is speaking behind closed doors, to these rich people speaking in some obviously disdainful way about the masses, that kind of broader idea is not a good one for mitt romney. >> and the thing that the obama campaign has seized on, remember, is that not necessarily the quotes about income taxes but the quotes about how he said i don't have to worry about those people and

obama is out there saying, look, when you're president of the united states, you're president of everybody, for everybody, you have to fight for everybody. i think that's the sentiment that democrats see as being the most problematic for romney. >> the president repeated that on letterman last night, saying, you know, one of the things i learned as president is that you represent everybody, and, indeed, it's a message -- when all this came out even the talk about being a divider and not a uniter i thought about the president on the stage in 2008 in grant park, we have the sound when he talks about the people that didn't vote for him. let's play that sound. >> to those americans who -- whose support i have yet to earn, i may not have won your vote tonight, but i hear your voices, i need your help and i will be your president too. >> i mean, you talk about a lot has been said about the president's comments at a fund-raiser when he talks about people clinging to guns and religion. the take away, the thing he was trying to communicate is those

people may not be supporters, may not vote for me, but i've got to try to convince them, part and parcel of the message he delivered when he was elected. >> one of the strikes against obama among, you know, those who will not vote for him, is that he -- he talks in poetry. i've never listened to a politician who talks more in pros than mitt romney. when he was in the room, he seemed actually lit up and in a way much more articulate as you said. and this linear, cost benefit, you know, balance sheet mitt romney, is never going to have this ability to have like numbers, like obama has on things that count, like unemployment, and rise above it to a grace note like, i want to earn -- those of you who didn't vote for me i want to earn it. mitt romney doesn't even -- mitt romney doesn't see the people building the car elevator in his house. he doesn't see them. he doesn't know workers who are holding two jobs. he doesn't see it.

they work harder by the way than most of us. those people who are in that 47%, are really hard workers and they're drowning in their life. >> okay. i would just say, though, in the apples to oranges department here when you're talking to a fund-raiser, probably after a long day, and when you've just been elected president as president obama was on that night in '08, i mean, if there's ever not a night for a grace note i mean anyone who's just been elected to anything will either -- there will be some kind of nod to the people who didn't vote for him or her. again, i mean -- i don't know if i would go so far as to call governor romney's remarks at the fund-raiser poetry, i don't think you did snashs -- >> a little bit better -- >> he does. >> does prefer the -- >> i know i do. >> he thought he wasn't on camera which may be just as critical as the fact that he was talking to donors. >> i just think constitutionally the idea -- >> camera all the time. >> that in and of itself is naive, not your comments but

that he would think that, you know, these comments don't get picked up. but the sentiment as you pointed out, casey, the idea that you would say i'm not going to concern myself with 47% of the country, is pretty shocking. i mean to think that even. >> it's disqualifying. >> yes. he is running to be the president of the united states, not talking about a small sliver of the electorate, about half the country. we have much more to discuss. coming up one of the highlights of governor romney's videotaped remarks is a stark line drawn between us and them. romney accused the president of that very same thing. >> there's something else that you've watched in the president's campaign over the past several months. and that is an increasingly divisive and um, um, and dismissive approach to the american people. it's been a campaign of pitting one american against another. >> who is really creating the great divide? we will discuss the real culprits ahead on "now." [ male announcer ] your mouth is cleanest after a dentist visit.

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with less than 50 days to go the vultures are circling. peggy noonan calling the romney campaign, quote, incompetent and writes all the activists, party supporters and big donors should be pushing for change, an intervention is in order. mitt, this isn't working. bill chris toll writes the remarks arrogant and stupid and david brooks says it's a country club fantasy. a romney campaign bund her tells politico people are frustrated and feel we have an opportunity to win this cycle and we're just imploding.

a senior republican is quoted saying nobody wants to be there yet, but you do have to have a plan b. and republican senator scott brown said that's not the way i view the world, as someone who grew up in tough circumstances i know that being on public assistance is not a spot anyone wants to be in. a day before the republican national convention in tampa former governor charlie crist penned an op-ed explaining why he no longer fit within the current republican party writing -- joining us now from tampa is former florida governor charlie crist. governor, great to have you on the program as always. >> hello. great to be with you. thank you. >> i guess i ask you as someone who left the gop, how much do you identify with the conservatives who are looking at mitt romney and saying, something ain't right, and do you think this is the beginning of a sort of version of party cannibalization in advance of

november? >> well, it could be. it has been a very difficult couple weeks here for the romney campaign. i think that's without question. and, you know, f that continues, it's going to have more of a cumulative effect as time goes on. when you react to what happened in libya the way he did and you talk about, you know, the 47% even if it was in a private setting, maybe it revealed sort of your true thoughts and emotions about an awful lot of people this country, that can be pretty disheartening and discouraging, i would think, to a lot of people, republicans and independents and democrats and so this is not a good time -- there's a lot of time left without a doubt, but it's not moving in the right direction for governor romney right now. >> the other question, governor, is certainly there are issues being raised for mitt romney's candidacy but other folks trying to get re-elected down ballot and the problems his comment mace have caused for those republicans we played or i mentioned the comments made by scott brown, linda mcmahon has

tried to distance herself. what do you see as the broader repercussions within the party as far as folks trying to get into the senate or house or re-elected? >> well, you could see more of that. i mean if this continues, this trend continues, and the difficulties within the romney campaign continue to exist, you're going to see more of that, i think. i mean, people don't want to have the top of the ticket be a drag on their race and i think that's why you saw scott brown speak up and mcmahon in connecticut say what she did, that they're trying to distance themselves from what they view as a problematic situation they don't want to compound upon their candidacy whether for the senate or congress or what have you. and so you'll see that only expand, i believe, but it are the depends on whether or not, you know, the romney campaign can sort of right the ship. >> i want to open this up to our panel a little bit. jonathan, peggy noonan has been pretty critical, i would say constructively critical of the romney campaign, but the --

>> you think constructively. >> i picture her sitting at the desk saying this is how i would do it and trying to communicate it to you and just listen to what i'm saying and certainly today is no different. but the rhetoric has gotten sharper from within the sort of elites of the republican party. an i guess i wonder at what point there is a tipping point there? >> well, if they all think that romney is going to lose, they all want to avoid the lessons being drawn in such a way as to disadvantage their idea for where the party should go. if you're a conservative that believes in small government and the like you don't want the lesson to be romney was too right wing on economics, you want it to be something else, personal problem with romney. if you love mitt romney you want to blame somebody else. a consultant in romney's campaign you want it to be some other consultant was steering him wrong. everyone has their motives. once it starses to seem really likely he's going to lose everyone is pulling out their motives and assigning the blame

where they want to assign it. >> you usually rawait for the sp to begin to hit water before the rats jump and not that any of these people quote ready any kind of ver min at all, but you say -- >> just metaphorically speaking, people covering themselves in the politico saying, oh, he's the culprit, i'm just fine. but you know, governor crist was on the wrong side of the party, simply for shaking hands with president obama when -- >> he hugged him. >> oh, a hug. a bear hug. >> it was a hug. >> like the pizza guy hug. full hug. that explains it. >> even worse. >> don't give a full hug. >> only shaken hands you'd probably be okay. >> governor crist, respond to that if you would. do you feel like the modern republican party is moving faster than it ever has in terms of disavowing or disowning those who step outside the lines? >> it seems much less tolerant than it was at one point in time. i don't think there's any question about it.

it did start for me in '09 in fort meyers, florida, when i literally embraced the president when he came to my state for the first time after his election and being sworn in and the reaction from republicans to that, astounding me. i was raised by my mother and father and raised me and my three sisters to be decent to other people, do unto others, and, you know, to be respectful to others, particularly at if that person happens to be the president of the united states of america. and so the reaction toward being decent toward him, but some members of my former party, really surprised me. it just wasn't how i was raised. it wasn't the kind of values that i believed in. and the notion that you would have to be mean or angry toward this gentleman who had just been elected our new president, wasn't a place that i felt comfortable and so not long thereafter, i left the party because it just wasn't right, because the party before that had really left me. it wasn't as inclusive.

it had gone hard right. you know, whether you talk about immigration or talking about education or voter suppression, i mean some of the things that we've seen across the country in relation to those three issues alone, just weren't a place that any i think moderate could be comfortable anymore at all. and, you know, the voter suppression issue is astounding to me. the fact that there's really sort of a targeting if you will, to have less early voting, certainly that's happened in my state. you can't vote on the sunday before the election anymore and you could four years ago in florida. when i was the republican voter i expanded the hours and time to do so. a lot of people worked and a lot of peopdied for our right to ha that right to vote to determine who our leaders are. here we're going in the reverse direction and trying to have less people be able to vote. >> it is a conundrum, trying to dial back the right of americans

to participate in the democratic process. mark leibovich, you had a question fort governor. >> governor, i'm just sort of curious what do your friends within the republican party, if you have any left, what are they saying about the recent circling of the wagons, if you will? >> depending on which ones you ask. my mother and father happen to be republicans and pretty understanding and realize why i've done what i've done. there are some who criticize. by and large, i've seen an awful lot of nice people around florida who have been expressing some gratitude and thank you for doing what you really believe in and not being afraid to say look, this is not what i can understand anymore, this is not where my heart and soul are, and being honest about it. it's not an easy thing to do, you know. some have in florida called me opportunistic and i've said in response it's a wonderful opportunity to get your head bashed in for two weeks since i came out and endorsed the president. you have to live with yourself

and sleep at night and the only way i can do that is by being honest with the people of florida and, you know, i've gotten to know this man, this president obama, and served with him, you know, the last two years of my term as governor and what he did for florida was incredible. i mean he was here to help us out with the oil spill even though i was a republican, he was here to help our teachers, our firefighters, our police officers. he even tried to give us a high-speed rail, a bullet train, but unfortunately ideology got in the way of that with the new administration in tallahassee and they rejected it and that would have provided, you know, tens of thousands of jobs here in florida that is so important, significant investment in our infrastructure. we have to have more of people willing to work together for the common good and stop this ideological hunt. that's what it's all about to me and i think most floridians and most americans. >> indeed. governor charlie crist, giving us all a lesson in good karma. thank you, sir, for your time as always. coming up -- >> thank you. >> these divides states the

likes of rush limbaugh, eric ericsson and donald trump want romney to adopt a no surrender strategy when it comes to his comments about the 47%. the influence of the extreme with thomas mann and norm ornstein in ahead on "now." joshua davis knows the frustration of looking for funding. after being turned down by multiple lenders the owner of gelato fiasco in brunswick, maine, contacted a community group making loans to small business owners. he got the money he needed and now he's back to focusing on flavors. for more watch "your business" sunday mornings at 7:3 on msnbc. president obama: i'm barack obama and i approve... this message. anncr: he keeps saying it... mitt romney: this president cannot tell us that you're...

better off today than when he took office. anncr: well... here's where we were in 2008... tv anncr: the worst financial collapse... since the great depression... tv anncr: american workers were laid off in numbers not seen... in over three decades. anncr: and here's where we are today... thirty months of private sector job growth. creating 4.6 million new jobs. we're not there yet. but the real question is: whose plan is better for you? the president's plan asks millionaires... to pay a little more... to help invest in a strong middle class. clean energy. and cut the deficit. mitt romney's plan? a new 250,000 dollar tax break for... multi-millionaires. roll back regulations on the banks that cratered the economy. and raise taxes on the middle class. president clinton: they want to go back to the same old... policies that got us in trouble in the first place. president obama: we're not going back, we are moving forward. anncr: forward.

coming up -- you do the math. if welfare recipients are part of mitt romney's definition of the 47% the governor may want to take a look at his family tree, something jon stewart did on "the daily show" last night. >> public assistance is clearly a path to dependence and i would like to see evidence otherwise. oh, you have some evidence? mitt romney's mom, something about mitt romney's dad? >> you know, we've only owned our home for the last four

years. he was a refugee from mexico. he was on relief, welfare relief for the first years of his life. but this great country gave him opportunities. >> oh, my god. george romney was on welfare, so according to mitt romney's own logic, mitt romney could not win the vote of his dad. >> we will do the arithmetic on the 47% when ezra klein joins the panel ahead on "now." [ female announcer ] born from the naturally sweet monk fruit,

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seven years after hurricane katrina the rebuilding effort continues in new orleans. >> the percentage of residential properties in the lower ninth

ward rendered uninhabitable was 900. >> connects volunteers with residents who can afford the materials to rebuild but can't afford labor. >> i would like to say we're sustainable long term. i don't know that's the case. go to paying it forward.nbc news.com. ♪ ♪ ♪ that should do it. enjoy your new shower. [ door opens, closes ] the conservative base of the republican party has a message for governor romney, embrace your disgrace of a 47% according to red states eric erickson,

quote, the romney campaign should double down on what he said. they should owner. elder mouth piece rush limbaugh thinks romney was presented with a gift. >> never one to admit a mistake romney supporter and great american flame thrower donald trump says romney shouldn't back down tweeting, quote, with 49 days until the election mitt romney stay on the offensive. he should not be apologizing, deflect on to obama's record. meanwhile, laura engram can't quite figure out why it's even a story in the first place. >> i'm very pumped up about this.

i think it's ridiculous people are seizing on it and we're giving all that much air time to it. >> the comments have certainly not revealed -- certainly revealed a lot about mitt romney so has his reaction. the nominees doubling down is how beholden romney is to his base and illuminates a larger truth about the modern republican party. joining are the authorities of the book "it's even worse than it looks how the american constitutional system collided with the new politics of extremism" senior fellow at the brookings institution thomas man and norm ornstein. great to have you on the show. i was saying before we started rolling cameras your book is one of the most important and underdiscussed works of this year so anything we can do to juice book sales we will try to do in this segment. >> bless you, alex. >> way to go, alex. >> let's start with this latest sort of snafu in romney land and i'm curious to know what you guys think of the conservative reaction to it. because some sort of more

moderates in the party have said look this was a bad idea, this was a bad comment, romney should really sort of walk it back, rethink his strategy and then the rush limbaughs and the laura engrams and extreme voices that seem to have won out in so far as mitt romney is doubling down on his comments and doesn't seem to be to be apologizing to anyone. is this exemplary of, you know, the republican party swinging even further right in recent years? >> oh, it certainly is, alex. let me start by saying i'm waiting for the moment when paul ryan's mom sees the videotape and says holy crap, he means me. >> yeah. >> but, you know, along with that, this has been a romney problem through the primaries where he's had to tilt sharply to the right. they want a hard-edged approach to the campaign. it appears that when he made his premature comments about the embassy attacks it was because he was goated into it by rush limbaugh and laura engram, among others, and now he's between

that rock and a hard place. to move away from what has become a pretty blatant class ware far, but not 1% against 99%, 53% against 47%, where a significant share of the 47% are your own voters if you don't back down from that, you may make rush limbaugh very happy but you're not likely to expand your base or include more votes that you really need and that's where the republican party has gone and it's not a winning strategy. >> thomas, i want to remind our viewers that you guys are both skol scholars at think tanks not known for espousing wild [ inaudible ]. you write in your book the contemporary gop to the horror of many of its long-time stall worths like former senators john danforth of missouri has veered toward tolerance of extreme ideological beliefs and policies and embrace of cynical and deruck stive means to advance political ens of problem solving.

certainly seems that's what's happening in this current election cycle. do you feel like there is, you know, this will -- this sort of market for this kind of cynical strategy will eventually get saturated and/or the republican party will paint itself into a corner to the degree that they are going to have to at some point swing back to the middle? >> that's really the hope, the latter, alex, of what will happen. what's transpired with mitt romney's videotape is embl emblemattic of what the republican party and congress has become. they really have veered sharply off the tracks. there's nothing conservative about them anymore. it's radical. it really requires repealing a century's worth of economic and social policy. it's really quite audacious and the means used on capitol hill like threatening public default

by not raising the debt ceiling, contributes to the ideological extremism. and now with a videotape, we saw a sort of frank contempt for the loser class, if you will, something that will be hard for a lot of americans to believe is really being said, but, you know, in many respects for the health of our political institutions, i hope romney sticks to what he's saying and makes it very clear what his view is because i think it's only when the public gets a reading of that, weighs in on it that you have any chance of the republican party returning to the mainstream of american politics. >> jonathan, you know, the thing that puzzles me about all of this, when romney's put in this position, is the rush limbaughs and the laura engrams and, you

know, whether the hannitys and so forth, seem to have a disproportionate influence on this candidate and i just don't understand the courting of the base, the feeling that they constantly have to tip their hat to the base. there was the expectation there would be the etch a sketch back to the center and it hasn't happened. we are 50 days out, less than 50 days from the election and still incredibly concerned about them. >> he psychologically captured. they seemed to think during the primary once he got the nomination that was it. no more leverage on romney. they had to get everything they were going to get from him before the nomination. that hasn't proven true. they've had almost as much leverage on the general election campaign. one of the things that says to me if he's elected it's going to continue through his presidency. he's never going to say i can do what i want, go, you know, do romney care on a national level or anything like that. that's the guy he is now. >> and mark, that brings up the idea of, you know, just who is mitt romney? i think for a while, until i think this summer, there was a real sort of thesis out there that this guy is really just

kind of a moderate, he's doing this stuff to get elected bud you look at that videotape, you look at his comments, doubling down, maybe this is actually who he is these days. >> look, i mean i think the fact we're still asking this question is itself somewhat damming to him. if he does lose in november i think he will be disowned quickly by the republican party. i don't think he will be getting prime time speaking spots in 2016 and i also think you can hear the arguments immediately within the republican party we keep nominating these moderates like john mccain, you know, mitt romney, george w. bush disappointed us, let's actually go out and find ourselves a pure conservative, and, you know, the cycle will sort of continue and then maybe if they lose again, it will come back to the middle. i do think that right now, i mean, there is a sort of a taboo lar taking place. >> thomas mann and norm ornstein we hope there is a time in the near future when the republican party takes a turn on the psychiatrist couch. until then we suggest everybody

go out immediately and buy a copy of your book, it's even worse than it looks. it is a great read and an important read. thanks so much for joining us. >> thank you, alex. >> thank you. after the break, 46.4% of u.s. households didn't pay federal income taxes last year so mitt romney's kind of sort of right about something, but that's pretty much it. we'll ask ezra klein about the takers versus the makers, that's next. [ male announcer ] you like who you are... and you learned something along the way. this is the age of knowing what you're made of. so, why let erectile dysfunction get in your way? talk to your doctor about viagra. 20 million men already have. ask if your heart is healthy enough for sex. do not take viagra if you take nitrates for chest pain; it may cause an unsafe drop in blood pressure. side effects include headache, flushing,

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millionaires who used deductions and reduced rates on capital gains to avoid paying any income tax at all. who put most of those in place, the republican party. joining the panel now to break down the numbers is msnbc policy analyst and columnist with "the washington post" my favorite wonk of them all, ezra klein. ezra, as always great to see you. >> how are you? >> you know, the great thing about this whole 47% debate is that it shines a light on what's going on as far as who's paying taxes and loopholes that exist and just the fairness of the american tax structure. and i'm very happy to have you on to talk about this. >> it's definitely my favorite thing about the debate. >> but it's an important part of the debate. my -- i think the thing that blows my mind here in all of this is, you know, there are three groups of people it seems in the 47% who aren't paying income tax not the same as not paying any tax at all, the elderly because they're not making incomes so not paying income tax, the poor and millionaires setting aside the

millionaires focus on the poor. most of the reason the poor are not paying taxes because they get tax credits like earned income tax credit and child tax credit which are, ezra, republican inventions. >> yeah. and let me go back on this for one second. there are three groups as well, but i want to say it's the poor as in the third group, the middle class a lot of them. you don't pay income taxes up to around $46,000 in this country. a lot of people don't know that because your income tax liability, what wonks are talking about when they say this, it gets wiped out later, you get a tax refund, paid taxes, later you got a check, seeing the check was bigger than taxes if it was you didn't pay income taxes. you wrote a check. you might feel like you did. a lot of reason people aren't paying if you look at a graph, it goes way up during reagan and way up during george w. bush the reason for the tax policy side we began putting into place these changes in the tax code. we made a very big thing called the ernds income tax credit and in place the child tax credit to help families and the idea

behind these tax credits was to get people who didn't have much money, give them more reason to work. make work more valuable to them. helped move people off welfare and on to work. within romney's comments is this contradicti contradiction. the tax changes he's talking about that created this 47% which i think is a crazy statistic for a different reason, but which created it, that is what is helping people get off quote/unquote dependency and republicans who came up with that theory and expanded the cuts over the years because it was working so well. >> marg gret, this is choice, when reagan, ronald reagan, he of the great republican party, signed the tax act which included the earned income tax credit into law this what is he said. that's why i'm certain that the bill i'm signing today is not only a historic overhaul of our tax code and a sweeping victory for fairness, it is also the best anti-poverty bill, the best pro family measure and the best

job creation program ever to come out of the congress of the united states. >> well so many things that republicans once were in favor of, they're not in favor of anymore. and we can add i guess the working poor which is let's make it worth working. the working poor, or even the working middle class were dissed in this diatribe that mitt romney had. and it's exclusionary of the very people that actually are drawn too mitt romney. i mean he ticked off his other base. i mean he has two bases. the people in the room that he was talking to. but his other base is these people. you know, the white working class. >> perhaps people that remember, you know, sort of fiscal policy, not but two decades ago and especially under president reagan, a fan favorite, if you will, casey, among the republican party. >> a fan favorite indeed. and keep in mind, too, to a little bit to margaret's point, americans in this recession are feeling like the country is going in the wrong direction. they feel like they're working

harder and getting less. they don't necessarily feel like the government has stepped in to help them or don't want to feel that way. >> ezra, with very to button this up, but i want to talk about the rich who are getting breaks, tax breaks. the tax policy center says 4,000 high-income earners, those making over $1 million paid no federal income tax thanks to deductions mitt romney is no stranger to convenient ways of saving money and not paying taxes. >> yeah. and more to the point, mitt romney himself is paying less in taxes at 13.9% than most of the folks in that 47%. this gets to the big lie of this whole thing. we've begun talking about taxes as federal income taxes. that is one part of the tax code. the other big part of the federal tax code is payroll taxes. that's a part that people who are working class pay. they pay it up to all of their income, the rich only pay up to $100,000 of their income. it's about 14 to 15% when you include the employer side. this is how most working-class people experience a tax code and when we talk about it this way, the way the republicans began

framing it they get wiped out of the conversation entirely. it's ridiculous. >> "the washington post's" ezra klein, our favorite wonk of them all. we look forward to having more in depth discussions about tax policy coming up in the next few weeks. coming up, yesterday she visited secretary of state hillary clinton and today she will meet with president obama and the leaders of congress. but before pro-democracy leader and nobel laureate aung san sue chi was a political prisoner. i will explain importance of her visit and her trip to the u.s. in my post-script coming up next. rogaine? well, i'll admit it. i was skeptical at first. but after awhile even my girlfriend noticed a difference.

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post-script. people have heard of the southeast asian country known as myanmar or bir ma they're as likely to have heard mention of its national hero in, nobel peace prize laureate aung san suu kyi. when burma has it's been known in my family plunged into economic ruin crippled by strife and subject to gross violations of human rights at the hands of an oppressive and illegitimate military regime in 1962 my family immigrated to the united states where they would become american citizens. but not one from the last half decade did they or i ever lose sight of the far away country once called home. a place shrouded as much in secrecy as in sadness. for both exited burmese and the global community that has followed aung san suu kyi's struggle for human rights in the face of one of the most brutal militaries, her recent release from 15 years of house arrest has capped a stunning series of changes inside the country led by newly elect the president thain sane. her visit to the united states

is not something my 96-year-old grandmother could have imagined happening in her lifetime. after so many years of violence and dashed hopes, nor certainly could she have dreamed that this afternoon, she would live to see america's first african-american president sit down with a woman whose stature is so immense, story so well known, that most burmese simply refer to her as the lady. there are certainly many serious concerns about reforms inside the question, questions relating to the treatment of burma's ethnic minorities and fate of the prisoners languishes in the country's jails and how to have sustainable development in a period of rapid change. one can only hope matters these are what she takes up this week. more than anything, this is a moment of great joy. to see aung an sue chi walk the halls of congress and enter the white house after so many years when the only ground she could touch was a small patch of land

surrounded by bausched wire in a sunken city, the mere fact she's able to travel across borders is in and of itself to those living in oppression, freedom simply isn't an abstract concept but a blessing sometimes granted in the most likely circumstances and in the darkest hours. it is a reason not to just hope in the unseen, but to believe in it. thank you again to jonathan, casey, margaret and mark. that is all for "now." "andrea mitchell reports" is next. [ horse neighs ] look! she wears the scarlet markings! [ man ] out! your kind is not welcome here! nor your odd predilections! miracle whip is tangy and sweet, not odd.

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