Yes, The Left is That Crazy - Romney Paid Too Much in Taxes

The overdue release of Gov. Romney’s 2011 tax return and failure to offer more than a cryptic summary of earlier years both raise more questions than they answer.

What Americans did learn today is that Gov. Romney had to artificially engineer his tax rate to avoid paying only about 9 percent on almost $14 million in investment income. Even with his accounting trick, he still paid a lower percentage in taxes than the millions of working Americans who Gov. Romney derided as lazy victims of government dependency.

Gov. Romney’s cooked tax rate of 14.1 percent is also still lower than that of the millions of middle-class families, who would see a $2,000 tax increase under a Romney presidency.

Gov. Romney himself recently said that if he paid more than he owed, it would “disqualify” him from being president. But that’s exactly what he did, as we saw today when he released his 2011 tax returns just to generate better headlines.

Gov. Romney should immediately meet the standard expected by the American people, a standard he set for his vice presidential nominee—10 years of full tax returns. It is time for Gov. Romney to come clean about his own tax returns and the tax returns he will be imposing on America’s middle class. 

This from The Center for American Progress.  

Harry Reid says he is hiding something.  

Romney did not take advantage of all the charitable donations that he could have.  The reason that he did it was because when he released his estimated return back in April, his figures were incomplete.   Once all the figures came in he realized that his taxable rates would be lower than he originally said they would.  He paid the amount that he said he would be paying back in April.  So since he is paying more than he legally required to do they are complaining.  

Romney is not in charge of his income and his investments.  They are in a blind trust.  The investments are handled by third party who makes the decisions about where his money will be invested.  

He paid $1.9+ million in federal income taxes.  He gave more than $4 million to charity.  A full 30% of his income.  Unlike VP Biden who gave less than 2%, (he is cheap, cheap man with his own money, and if you read the White House release carefully, it says 'inkind' contributions, that means he wrote of his time/party as well).  

The new attack is now that his church requires tithing.  Yes, they do.  The Mormon Church asks for 10% of your income.  To the left this doesn't count.  Here is a list of things that The Mormon Church does with this money:

Clean Water programs in third world countries, wheelchairs for the disabled, Tsunami relief in Japan, earthquake relief in Pakistan, self sufficeny projects in the Andres, earthquake relief in Haiti, immunizing against preventable illnesses, poverty relief in Africa, vision care for the poor, homes for at risk boys, working to help to prevent amputations, working with amputees.

Horrible, horrible people.  How dare they give money and time to these causes?  The Romney's have their own foundation that works with at risk children.  Ann has given money to Planned Parenthood, to help with breast cancer outreach to poor communities.  They give money to help fund research into M.S.  Again, horrible people - how dare they.  

President Obama did release many years of income tax returns when he ran for president.  What we did learn from those returns is that he and his wife gave very little to charity, that is until he decided to run for public office.  What church did he give to?  Oh yeah, the Reverend "God Damn America" Wright church of racial politics and hatred.  The Romney's have been giving money to charity since their marriage began.  In fact, what he was left after his parents passed away went to charity in full.  

The Romney's have been painted as people who don't care for the poor.  These income tax returns prove a very different story.  He has made it his life to help others in need.  You can watch this video of people talking to Glenn Beck about what Romney did for them and the lives of others.  All of which was done under the radar.  He doesn't do it for fame, for thank-you's, for any other reason other than he believes that to those have been given much, much is expected.  It is part of his faith and part of him.  Yes, Glenn gets weepy at the end of this, but that isn't the point.  The point is the people whose lives have been helped.  

I am not thrilled with the Romney nomination.  I have been very clear about that since the primaries started.  But my reasons for that have nothing to do with who he is as a man.  As a man, I can't find much to complain about.  He has been a faithful husband, a loving, doting father and grandfather, he doesn't use drugs, and he gives of his time and parts with his money to people who need help.  The left have got nothing to use, so they are creating a false narrative that he is man that doesn't care about the poor.  His life proves otherwise.  

The left is also wrong about the tax rates that he pays compared to other American's.  

 Income taxes: A family of four in the exact middle of the income spectrum will pay only 5.6 percent of its 2011 income in federal income taxes, according to a new analysis by the Urban Institute-Brookings Institution Tax Policy Center. [3] Average income tax rates for these typical families have been lower during the Bush and Obama Administrations than at any time since the 1950s, as Figure 1 shows. (As discussed below, 2009 and 2010 were particularly low because of the temporary Making Work Pay Tax Credit.) And for those that don't know, Brookings is left leaning.

The Romney's are in the 80 percent of tax payers.  Only 20% of Americans pay a higher rate then he does.  Sad, but the truth is the truth.  

Don't vote for Romney if you don't like his political positions, but for anyone that thinks that these show something that should be a red flag, you are buying into media hype.  They show exactly the opposite.