Ryan: Mitt Was Off By 17%

Ryan Grim at HuffPo has new video of Paul Ryan in 2011, echoing Mitt Romney's disregard for a large swath of the nation:

WASHINGTON -- Mitt Romney and his running mate, Paul Ryan, share a similarly dim view of a very large portion of Americans, according to previously unreported remarks by Ryan. Both believe that many of their fellow citizens are dependent on government and have no motivation to improve their lives -- but they disagree over the precise number.

Romney's estimate, famously, is 47 percent. For Ryan, it's 30 percent.

"Seventy percent of Americans want the American dream. They believe in the American idea. Only 30 percent want their welfare state," Ryan said. "Before too long, we could become a society where the net majority of Americans are takers, not makers."

Contacted for comment, Congressman Ryan attributed the disparity between his number and Romney's estimate of the percentage of Americans happily mooching — on Medicare, Medicaid, Social Security, and unemployment — to "oversampling."