I shudder at the thought of this level of disarray in running the country.

Retired people are by far the largest part of the 47%. They paid taxes all their lives and have earned what they are getting. The first step in addressing this is leveling off spending, which Obama has done. Contrary to rightwing lies, government has expanded less under Obama than any president in modern history. The next step is to stop fucking cutting taxes! Republicans were handed a $400B surplus and turned it into a trillion deficit in 8 years. A big part of that was the Bush tax cuts. Now Romney wants to blow another $5T hole in the deficit before we even start to pay it back. And all to give even more breaks to people who don't need it.