Top Romney adviser: U.S. is a 'nation of people dependent on government'

Bay Buchanan, a senior adviser to Mitt Romney's campaign, on Sunday doubled down on the Republican presidential nominee's comment that 47 percent of Americans refused to take personal responsibility for their lives by asserting that the entire country was "a nation of people dependent on their government."

In video published by Mother Jones last week, Mitt Romney had told wealthy donors that 47 percent the country were "dependant" on government and were going to vote for President Barack Obama.

“My job is not to worry about those people,” Romney declared. “I’ll never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”

During a panel segment on NBC's Meet the Press, Democratic strategist Dee Dee Myers said that Romney's comments showed that he had a "very limited universe" and "really has no feel for what real people are doing."

"To characterize the personal life of Mitt Romney as Dee Dee has is to show that she does not know the man, she does not know what he has done," Buchanan shot back. "This is a man who has spent a life in serving others. That is the basis of what he believes."

"We are in perilous times in this country," she continued. "We are looking at financial ruin."

"We are a nation of people dependant on their government, and that is what Barack Obama gives us. And he promises more of that in four more years."

Watch this video from NBC's Meet the Press, broadcast Sept. 23, 2012.

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(h/t: Think Progress)