Wednesday, January 25, 2012

mitt romney's taxes, or lack thereof

This isn't about what a bad candidate Mitt Romney is, it's about what a bad tax system we have.

Much has been made of Romney finally releasing copies of his tax returns this week and what a relatively small percentage of his $21 million earnings (or whatever) went for taxes.  Then he went on TV to say that he doesn't apologize for being successful.

Nobody begrudges him success, I guess.  The complaint is that the bush tax cuts made unearned income (capital gains, qualifying dividends) taxed at a much lower rate than earned income.  So people whose income comes from W-2s, from going to work every day, often pay a much higher rate of tax than a zillionaire who just watches his money make more money.

Romney should be saying, "Hey, that isn't fair -- I should be paying more taxes."  Instead, his tax plan says that zillionaires should pay even less than they already are.  He then plays to people who don't understand taxes (the majority of voters, of course) and says "Lower taxes!", and they buy into it.  Hence, our economic catastrophe.

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