Wednesday, January 18, 2012

Romney part of the 1%

Under pressure from the public and media, Romney disclosed his tax return rate was somewhere around 15%. "By his own admission, Mr. Romney ranks among the tiny percentage of very wealthy Americans who have benefitted enormously from a broad shift in federal tax policy that began in the 1990s and accelerated under President George W. Bush, in which income from investments began to be taxed at much lower levels than the wages and salaries that constitute most earnings for the vast majority of people." This admission doesn't bode well for Romney as he is sure to lose any support he had from individuals that identify with the 99% group and probably many people who are unhappy with paying taxes. President Obama, on the other hand, "paid an effective federal tax rate of just over 26 percent on his 2010 returns." This admission could turn the election in Obama's favor for what is predicted to be a close race. Is this the start of Romney's downfall?
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3 comments:

Alex Zuniga said...

Although the fact that Mitt Romney is part of the 1% may turn off some voters, I believe that he won't lose a lot of voters as many people already knew that Romney has a lot of money. It is interesting to note that President Obama paid a federal tax rate over 26% on his 2012 tax returns creating the image of him paying his fair share which could help him in the upcoming election in November.

January 18, 2012 at 6:09 PM
Dustan Li said...

I agree with Alex as I believe that most people already knew that he was wealthy and probably did not pay the equal amount of taxes. This is definitely not the mark of Romney's downfall because there are worse things coming from the other GOP candidates. Going into a different direction, I think that this could eventually hurt the Republicans when it comes down to Romney and Obama as Romney released his tax returns due to the pressure of his fellow GOP candidates. With Obama paying his 26%, Romney will look more like a elite businessman which is something that will not be good for his image.

January 18, 2012 at 8:25 PM
JeremyHardy said...

Many people on our blog (and in general) argued that Romney's $10,000 bet during that December debate made him seem ignorant of the dismal financial situations in which a substantial number of Americans currently find themselves, and ultimately unable to relate to them. As a result, this might have marked the beginning of the end for Romney. However, we saw that this prediction did not correspond with reality. Instead, we witnessed Romney eventually distinguish himself as the GOP frontrunner, partly due to blunders or other actions by the rest of the candidates. Likewise, although this new piece of information will certainly further add to Romney's image of an elite businessman, I agree with Alex and Dustan in that this revelation will definitely not catalyze his downfall, if one should occur.

January 20, 2012 at 2:45 PM

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