Rally Round

By The Numbers
Mr. Romney made the remarks at a hastily arranged news conference at an airport in South Carolina, calling the interest in his personal tax returns “small-minded” in light of the nation’s problems. Nonetheless, he said that he had examined the last 10 years of his personal tax returns after Democrats suggested that he might not have paid anything at all in some years.

“Every year, I’ve paid at least 13 percent,” he said, referring to his effective federal income tax rate, which is a higher effective rate than most people pay. (NYT, 8/17/2012)

So let's do the math. Assume Romney made on average $15 million for 9 of the last ten years. We know that he made about $22 million in year ten, so $15 million is a conservative estimate. $15 million at 13% equals $2 million per year for nine years for a total of $18 million. Plus the $3 million that he paid in year ten equals taxes paid of $21 million for the decade. 

Did Mitt Romney pay "enough" taxes? Well $21 million sure sounds like a lot of money to us. How many thousands and thousands and thousands of families benefited from government programs funded by Romney's taxes? We are certain that they are glad that Romney was a successful businessman and that he "built" Bain Capital.

By The Numbers (Too)
“With Mitt, his approach to problem solving is first to identify the problem, make sure you’re solving for the problem actually there; second, look at best practices; third, apply best practices to the problem at hand; and fourth, execute on it,” said Beth Myers, a top Romney adviser who worked on his transition team in 2003, when he became governor of Massachusetts. (NYT, 8/16/2012)

By contrast, the Obama approach is to first blame Bush; second, call for higher taxes on the rich; third, talk about the need for green energy jobs; and fourth, secretly tell Putin that he will give him what he wants after the election.