Man, these people are OUT OF TOUCH!

(LOL) I don't think I've ever paid less than about 22% myself and I am no millionaire. LOL

Then again, wonder what Obama pays? Where's his birth... er... tax return. HAHAHA

Romney: I’ve paid at least 13 percent tax rate in each of past 10 years

Video: VIDEO | Speaking to reporters in South Carolina, Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said he paid at least 13 percent in taxes for each of last 10 years.




By Philip Rucker and Rosalind S. Helderman, Updated: Thursday, August 16, 1:00 PM

GREER, S.C. — Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney said Thursday that he has paid a tax rate of at least 13 percent on his income in each of the last 10 years, offering his fullest explanation to date of his tax status.
“I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent. I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid taxes every single year,” he told reporters Thursday.


Chris Cillizza 10:10 AM ET
THE FIX | Joe Biden’s Virginia trip has, in many ways, just affirmed — or reaffirmed — what we already know about him.





Democrats have hit Romney repeatedly on the tax issue, using it as an illustration for their argument that the Republican presidential candidate’s tax policies would favor the wealthy, like himself, over the middle class.


They have said he pays a lower effective tax rate than many middle class families. And they’ve said his refusal to publicly release more than two years of records shows he has something to hide about his personal finances.


In response to pressure from his rivals during the Republican primaries, Romney released his 2010 tax return in January, showing he paid 13.9 percent on his $21.7 million in 2010 income. His campaign said that in his comments to reporters Thursday, he meant to indicate he’d paid 13.9 percent--not 13.6 percent---in his most recent tax year.


He has said he will also release his 2011 return but has no plans to make public additional information.
Romney’s campaign has been pushing back against accusations from Senate Majority Leader Harry M. Reid (D-Nev.), who has claimed that he was told by an investor at Bain Capital, where Romney once worked, that the Republican candidate had paid nothing in taxes for at least 10 years, due to his ability to take advantage of tax breaks.


But Romney said Thursday that Reid’s charge is “totally false” and that he has, in fact, paid taxes every year. He complained the tax issue has been a distraction during a time when the country faces tough challenges.


“I just have to say, given the challenges that America faces – 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty – the fascination with taxes I’ve paid I find to be very small-minded compared to the broad issues that we face,” he said.


“I’m sure waiting for Harry to put up who it was that told him what he says they told him. I don’t believe it for a minute, by the way,” he said.


A spokesman for Reid said Romney could prove his statements true by making his records public.


“We’ll believe it when we see it,” said Reid spokesman Adam Jentleson. “Until Mitt Romney releases his tax returns, Americans will continue to wonder what he’s hiding.”


Romney’s answer on taxes--which came at the end of a news conference devoted to other issues--appeared to be a follow-up to a response he gave ABC’s David Muir in an interview last month.
Muir asked whether Romney had ever paid less than the 13.9 percent he paid last year.


“I haven’t calculated that,” Romney said then. “I’m happy to go back and look, but my view is I’ve paid all the taxes required by law.”


Democrats have said Romney’s own tax records are an illustration of the ways the wealthy can use looholes and tax shelters to lower their payments to the government. Romney’s tax rate is lowered by the fact that most of his annual income comes from investments, which are taxed at 15 percent, far below what he would pay on ordinary income.


If earned as regular wages, Romney’s income would otherwise put him in the nation’s highest tax bracket and he would pay a marginal rate of 35 percent.


According to a report from the Congresional Budget Office released last month, Americans paid an average ta x rate of 17.4 percent in 2009. That represented the lowest average tax rate paid since 1979 and was a drop from 19.9 percent paid in 2007.


Democrats have pushed him to follow the model of his father, George Romney, who released 12 years worth of tax records while running for president in 1968.


In an interview with NBC’s “Rock Center” this week, the candidate’s wife Ann Romney insisted the couple planned to make no additional tax information public, insisting Democrats wants the records for “ammunition” with which to attack her husband.
She said they have been “very transparent to what’s legally required of us.”


“Mitt is honest. His integrity is just golden,” she said.


Asked at his daily briefing about Romney’s remarks, White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said: “I don’t have a reaction. My statement to that would be that this president believes the tradition for presidential candidates putting forward multiple years of tax returns is a useful and valuable one. It’s not always a comfortable one but it’s one he abided by and one the American people believe is right and expect their candidates to abide by.”


President Obama’s 2011 tax return showed that he paid an effective rate of 20.5 percent.


Sen. Jim DeMint said Democrats’ focus on the tax issue was a sign they’re “looking for any issue other than the economy” to discuss.


“ Harry Reid has not shown us his taxes, Obama has not shown us his college records – I mean, there are a lot of things we could all ask about...We need to talk about the economy.”




David Nakamura contributed to this story.