On Thursday Romney said he misspoke when he said he's 'not concerned about the very poor.' Low-income GOP: Do more for poor

A significant portion of low-income Republicans might not embrace Mitt Romney’s comment this week that he is “not concerned about the very poor” because they have government programs that serve as a safety net, according to recent polls.

About a quarter of Republican and Republican-leaning registered voters have annual family incomes less than $30,000, according to the Pew Research Center.


And according to an October poll, the majority of Republicans that fall in this lowest income category, 57 percent, believe that the government doesn’t do enough to help the poor. Only 18 percent of this group said the government does too much to help the poor, while 21 percent said government aid for the poor is at the right amount.

Meanwhile, 44 percent of Republicans that have annual family incomes of $75,000 or more said the amount of federal aid for the poor is excessive, while only 21 percent said it is not enough.

Also, lower-income Republicans have a markedly different view about the fairness of the economic system than higher-income Republicans – 51 percent of Republicans with an annual income of less than $30,000 said in a December poll that the country’s economic system unfairly favors the wealthy, while just 28 percent of Republicans with an annual income $75,000 or more said the same.

Romney was criticized this week for saying in a CNN interview on Wednesday, “I’m not concerned about the very poor — we have a safety net there. If it needs repair, I’ll fix it.” The Republican candidate defended his comment on the campaign trail by saying it was taken out of context, and on Thursday, he acknowledged that he “misspoke.”