Utah Senator Orrin Hatch clarifies Mitt Romney’s 47% comments:

Mitt Romney got it wrong: It’s not 47 percent of the nation that is not paying federal income taxes.

“It’s 51 percent!” Sen. Orrin Hatch (R-Utah) said Wednesday.

Hatch, who often talks about the percentage of Americans who don’t have to pay Uncle Sam — aside from payroll taxes — offered that clarification after he was asked whether he has concerns about fallout from a losing presidential campaign in which Romney’s use of the 47 percent figure played a prominent role. Romney argued at a secretly recorded fundraising event that he wasn’t concerned about the 47 percent because they wouldn’t vote for him.

Hatch argued that Romney’s comments “had an effect, but I don’t think much of an effect,” so he was not worried.

He also clarified what he thinks Romney meant and should have said.

“It was distorted because Romney did not explain it right,” Hatch said. “All he had to say was ‘Look, when 51 percent of all households — not just individuals — don’t pay a penny in income taxes, it shows that we’ve got too many people riding in the wagon.’ What he should have said is, ‘I want to get them out of the wagon in good jobs where they can also help pull the wagon.’

“That’s what he meant to say, but he didn’t say it,” added Hatch, who once suggested the poor should pay more taxes. He later clarified that he did not want to tax the “truly poor.”

My humble suggestion to the Republican Party: kindly drop the percentages talk. For a group of people so preoccupied with enumeration, you’d think they’d understand the drop in their own polling percentages.