Presidential candidate Mitt Romney, at a private 50-thousand-dollar-a-plate banquet, stated, “There are 47 percent of people who will vote for the president no matter what.”

Alright, there are 47 percent who are with him who are dependent upon government. These people believe that they are victims, that the government has a responsibility to care for them, that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it. They believe that all of these things are entitlements.

The 47 percent Romney speaks of does not only include the poverty-stricken. It also includes the elderly who have worked their whole lives, along with hardworking people who pay taxes on everything they purchase, from TVs to license plates. It also includes students.

Timothy Noah, journalist for The New Republic, presented a pie chart in his blog on tnr.com that shows 61 percent of Romney’s 47 to be workers who pay payroll taxes. These workers may not earn enough for federal taxes but do pay state and other taxes. Noah’s chart also indicated 22 percent being elderly, seven percent disabled or suffering from illness, three percent being students (including USI students) and 7 percent in the “other” category.

A small part of that “other” includes those that cannot find work. Without them, American businesses have no employees to produce or manufacture their products, nor anyone to peddle their oil, vehicles, cable television or newest technological devices to.

That 47 percent houses the shoulders on which this country stands. They are service. They are consumers. They are human beings. They are America.