Neither Gingrich nor Romney Pay Their Taxes, Obviously.

State of the Union? In Need of Tax Reform

Me and my pile of money will uphold this office.

Exploiting tax loopholes is a tradition practiced and revered by Americans across the country, not something reserved for the wealthiest Americans. H&R Block has built a business around clever manipulation of taxes and that business is booming.

Mitt Romney buckled under pressure and released his 2009 and 2010 tax returns. Showing that he paid a tax rate of 13% on his 45 million dollars in earnings which is considerably below that of normal Americans, even those high earners in the top tax bracket. The source of his income was his hundreds of millions of dollars in investments, income that is not considered as taxable under current regulations.

Romney is the captain of team .001%, but then again this shouldn’t be a surprise. If the nomination nod rolls toward him, he will be the 3^rd  wealthiest man to ever run for congress only behind Steven Forbes and Ross Perot, a Republican and Independent.

In lieu of these releases, the country is obsessed with who was rich when they ran for President. The stats were a little surprising, 5 of the 10 ten wealthiest people to run for President in the last 20 years are Democrats and only one has successfully secured the Presidency:  Bill Clinton. John Edwards, John Kerry, Hilary Clinton and Al Gore were also among those who had deep pockets, but still came up short at the polls. And to think, their opponents McCain and George Bush were accused by them of being to rich to relate to their constituents.

If top Democrats are just as wealthy and disconnected as their opponents, then which party is the champion of the down trodden and needy?

This brings into question whether or not many top politicians have any way of connecting with the average American. Recession and job loss are performance metrics for politicians, not realities that prevent food from being brought to their tables lest they had figured out how to prevent foreclosure.

Much of the explanation of the cult of personality surrounding President Obama may be explained by his modest upbringing and first hand knowledge of the middle class. Much of his failures in Washington may also be explained by how unfamiliar he is with the elite. Nepotism and cronyism run Washington, SuperPACs convey their messages and the average voter is apt to be thought of as either an appeasable or problematic spectator.

This is not President Obama’s definition of politics and because of this he is being accused of turning it into a socialist state by people on both sides of the fence. It is clear who has the most to lose if wealth is to be more evenly distributed.

The race to the 2012 Republican nomination is now being dubbed as a battle between the Establishment and an Insurgency (much like Iraq was).  The separation between the Romney Establishment and the Gingrich Insurgency is best shown by their now released tax returns. It would appear he only made somewhere in the neighborhood of 3 million dollars last year and evade just a few tens of thousand dollars in Medicare taxes.  

After such a strong showing in South Carolina and relentless attacks on Romney in Florida, this may have been the lucky break that underdog Gingrich needed to best his much wealthier opponent.

Maybe 2012 is the year of the underdog just like 2008 was.

"Paying taxes makes being rich not cool"

"For once, we agree in public"