Romney and the flat rate investment income tax

Thanks to a flat invesment tax rate, Republican candidate Mitt Romney paid 13.9% of his 2010 income in taxes. His income for that year weighed in at about $21.6 milion and he paid $3 milion in taxes. His estimated figures for 2011 have his income at $20.9 milion and a tax rate of 15.4%. His average weekly income is equal to the yearly income of those near the bottom of the top 1%.

Possibly acknowledging the contrast in income tax proportion, Romney has "gone pretty light on his deductions,” according to tax attorney Ken Breir. It seems that Romney does not want to bring any attention to his tax record.

Romney has paid $7.5 milion less in taxes for 2010 and 2011 than what he would have if President Obama's tax plans had been enacted. Paying $7.5 million more in taxes over two years would double his tax rate.

How should investments be taxed? Is it fair that the rich can pay a much lower proportion of their income in taxes?

He's Back, But Do We Want Him Here?

As we all know, California has recently been cutting back on education funding. Over 3 billion dollars was proposed to be cut statewide by Schwarzenegger last March. But education isn't the only area suffering from low funding. Prison guards have recently been upset by Schwarzenegger's proposal to cut their pay back to $6.55 an hour. The state deficit is now at an incredible 15 billion dollars, and understandably Schwarzenegger is trying to cut back. However, I don't think that he is doing a very good job of spinning these cuts in the right direction. Schwarzenegger was interviewed tonight on the CBS Evening News about the budget cuts, and he had THIS to say.

Just past 1:20 in the video Schwarzenegger mentions a "rainy day fund" that he wishes we had to dip into at times like this. Well, he has been in office for 5 years, and HE didn't make one, so who exactly is he blaming? Grey Davis? Davis put into effect many bills (mentioned in the "Prison" article above) that raised pay and the budget state-wide, so I guess he is partially to blame. However, Davis' actions don't give Schwarzenegger the right to escape all of the bad press. He isn't being very responsible by dodging questions and blaming past Governors and the State Legislator (time-stamp 1:07).

The prison guard union is trying to recall Schwarzenegger, and I think they have the right idea. I know it's an idealistic notion, but political officials should take responsibility for their shortcomings! I think it's time we got a new head of our state.

A Bone for the GOP (but why it doesn't really hurt Obama)

Though I think I've made it obvious who I support, there are some more conservative positions I do find more correct. One of them is pretty much the only opposing viewpoint I have with Obama and it has to do with taxes. I do like Obama's income tax plan: cutting taxes for 95% of people. But, his plan to possibly raise the corporate income tax is quite dangerous. America already has one of the world's highest corporate tax rates--to keep America competitive, it would be counterproductive to raise it. It should in fact be lowered.

However, I promised to also throw a bone back to Obama in my title. You see, thankfully, Obama is not really as liberal in economics as he appears. During the primaries, he was battling Hillary, who while liberal, espouses the Third Way of the Democratic Party (basically socially liberal, but believers in the free market except when there are market failures like environmental damage or labor abuse). He had to go to her left in order to beat her. And right now, he is trying to pander to the American working class which is regretfully anti-free trade. But, Obama is not stupid and he realizes free trade and free markets are inevitable and even to be welcomed. In short, once he shores up his base, he will once again revert to a sensible view on the economy. And this will take away most of the advantage on the issue McCain has now in the long-run once people realize what he truly stands for.

NOTE: The article link in the title is a bit lengthy, but accurately represents both sides' economic policies. Judge for yourselves, but I think you'll see that Obama's is better.