"The vast majority of these Americans are working today and they pay a significant percentage of their income in taxes — whether they are federal payroll taxes, property taxes, sales taxes or other state and local taxes. They often pay an even higher share of their income in these taxes than wealthier families, like Mitt Romney’s," Castor told reporters on a conference call.
Piling on was President Obama, who said on David Letterman's show on CBS that "One of the things I've learned as president is you represent the entire country. If you want to be president, you have to work for everyone."
Congresswoman Castor, expected to win re-election easily this fall against Republican E.J. Otero, said the facts are that the 47 percent that Romney "dismissed" include an overwhelming amount of "working families, are older retired neighbors, students and people with disabilities."
Mitt Romney took to Neil Cavuto's show on Fox News Tuesday afternoon to stop some of the bleeding resulting from his provocative comments to a private fundaiser in Boca Raton last May that were released on the website of Mother Jones magazine.
Romney's comments that 47 percent of the public that are on public assistance of some sort and wouldn't vote him anyway.
Tampa area Democratic Congresswoman Kathy Castor says that Romney has "failed the character test" in insulting half of the country that he hopes to lead.
