thedailyfeed:

We checked into Mitt Romney’s assertion that 47% of Americans don’t pay taxes and are “dependent on government.” 

While it’s true that about 46% of Americans don’t pay federal income taxes, only 18% don’t chip in something in the form of payroll taxes. 

Here’s a detailed breakdown of who pays taxes, who doesn’t and why. 

In which a light burns bright on the “47 percent” claims. (Side note: Nate Silver isn’t sure the controversy will actually hurt Romney in the polls. “The news media often jumps the gun in declaring events to be ‘game changers’ when they later prove to little effect on the numbers,” he writes.)