It's still Romney's party: Colorado GOP candidate attacks the 47 percent

2010 video shows Bob Beauprez decrying "strategy" to keep "over half of the population dependent" on government

Published July 3, 2014 4:14PM (EDT)

Mitt Romney                        (AP)
Mitt Romney (AP)

The Republican Party is still trying to outrun the plutocratic and elitist stigma 2012 presidential candidate Mitt Romney hung around its neck with his infamous "47 percent" video, and a newly surfaced 2010 video of Colorado GOP gubernatorial candidate blasting half the country for relying on "the largesse of government that somebody else is paying for" certainly isn't helping.

In the video, Republican nominee Bob Beauprez can be seen delivering an address to the Denver Rotary Club, during which he castigates Democrats for supposedly using a strategy reliant on giving away other people's money to attract votes. "I see something that frankly doesn't surprise me, having been on Ways and Means Committee," the former congressman says. "Forty-seven percent of all Americans pay no federal income tax."

"I'm guessing that most of you in this room are not in that 47 percent — God bless you," Beauprez adds, "but what that tells me is that we've got almost half the population perfectly happy that somebody else is paying the bill, and most of that half is you all."

No good as those 47 percent are, however, Beauprez argues that they're ultimately pawns in the Democrats' nefarious game. "I submit to you that there is a political strategy to get slightly over half and have a permanent ruling majority by keeping over half of the population dependent on the largesse of government that somebody else is paying for," Beauprez claims.

Responding to the release of the video, Beauprez's campaign argued that the candidate's comments weren't controversial or divisive.

"I don't see why it would be controversial to want more people to prosper," campaign manager Dustin Olson said to the Denver Post. "We should be focused on building up our economy so more people have jobs and prosper. It is a sad state of affairs when people are in an economic situation where they are not able to pay federal income tax."

You can watch Beauprez's speech below:


By Elias Isquith

Elias Isquith is a former Salon staff writer.

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