Still only addressing the 2 years released. Yes, what percentage of his income has Mitt Romney paid over 12 years? If he's paid 6.2 million out of say 80 million, then it could easily be argued that yes he's basically paid no taxes. Until he releases what is being asked for, Reid's claim is not disproved. Actually, as it stand,s Mitt Romney has paid far less taxes than a sizeable percentage of Americans. He's paid what? 14.1%? His secretaries pay more taxes without the help of tax shelters, lawyers and IRS savvy assistants to help them.
first, i'm going by Reids exact words... and not interjecting a metric that isn't stated... by that, i mean , Reid did not say he paid no taxes
over the course of 12 years .. he said he paid no taxes in the prior 12 years.
paying 1 dollar anywhere in that 12 years disproves his claim, based upon the verbiage he employed.
I can understand how and why people will claim to know what Reid meant.. but I also know what he actually said.... it's all part of the same game
as for Mitt paying less taxes than his secretaries... well, we know that's a false claim in terms of real dollars... but it's also a false comparison.
we know most of his income is taxed as capital gains... and we also know that if his secretaries income was in the form of capital gains, their rate would be identical.
we know that his income, from wages, is taxed at the same exact rates as his secretaries income from wages... maybe even more if his income from wages surpasses her's on the progressive rate scale
sure, you can argue income should be income should be income... but that is not reality, that is not law... that's an argument based in an alternate reality.
Reid has Romney where he wants him. He's showing just how little in taxes the guy is paying in comparison to the "middle class" which pays 35%. Romney can cry about the raw figures as much as he wants. However some people will only look at the percentage he pays vs the percentage they pay and wonder why he keeps 86% of his income while they only get to keep 65%. People are eventually going to start demanding he pay a higher percentage because he can afford to far more than they can. It's as good a political chess game as I've seen anybody play and Romney is pretty close to being check mated.
it's political gamesmanship, to be sure... and not without merit.... it's poor in terms of "truthiness" , but smart in terms of political theater.
unfortunately, Democrats tipped their hand when they started chastising Romney for paying too much in taxes on the return he just released.
it is as clear as a sunny day that what his tax return tells us is irrelevant... pay too little, pay too much... it doesn't matter.. the populist smears march on.
This isn't the Obama birther thing. There is definitely political fallout from releasing these documents. Which is why Romney is in a tough position. Obama released his birth certificate. And what? It made birthers the laughing stock of the crowd. Romney releases his tax returns and the majority of Americans will take notice of just what percentage of his income he's "forced" to live with vs what they are forced to live with.
true, I don't see this as being like the birther thing either..I see it as the run of the mill political theater and spin... nothing new, nothing unusual... same old disingenuous political crapola.
Romney does a poor job at defending against this tactic though...he seems kinda weak right now.
he needs to point out things like giving away 4 million in charity along with the 2 million in taxes he paid in 2011... he needs to invoke Judge Learned Hand.... he needs to do a lot of things he isn't doing.... it's not like the Democratic talking points are bulletproof... far from it.