GOP Candidates Paid More In Taxes And Charities Than Democratic Rivals

by Don Azarias
Ocotber 1, 2012
Why are the Democrats raising a big stink about Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney’s newly-released tax returns? Though he earned a lot of money, mostly through investments, he paid millions of dollars in taxes and gave millions more to charity. Yet why are they still hell-bent on making a campaign issue about the rate of Romney’s income tax payment when, in reality, Romney didn’t do anything illegal.
The Obama campaign, through its deputy manager, Stephanie Cutter, accused Romney of taking advantage of lower tax rates for capital gains available only “to those at the top.” Well, for all intents and purposes, Romney obeyed the tax law, didn’t he? The Democrats have no basis to blame Romney for using the current tax code on capital gains to calculate the amount of his tax obligations.
The Romneys’ 2011 tax return—and a summary of his filings between 1990 and 2009—are now public and they should give the American people a heads up on how they fulfill their moral obligations as honest taxpayers and generous benefactors.
Records show that Romney and his wife, Ann, paid nearly $2 million ($1,935,708 to be exact), in federal taxes last year, for an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. The couple also paid $1.3 million in state taxes. They also donated a generous $4,072,772 to charity last year. That works out to 30 percent of their gross income of $13,696,951. And, going back to 1990, they’ve given an average of 13.45 percent of their adjusted gross income to charity. The Romneys give three times as much to charity in an average single day than Vice President Joe Biden and his wife, Jill, did in an entire decade.
The Bidens reported earning $379,035 last year. They paid $87,900 in federal taxes and $17,457 in state taxes. The Bidens’ charitable giving amounts to about one quarter of one percent of their income. Biden and his wife gave an average of $369 a year to charity during the past decade, their tax records show. The Bidens reported giving $995 in charitable donations last year—about four tenths of a percent of their income and the highest amount in the past decade. They gave a measly $120 in 1999, about one-tenth of a percent of their income. Over the decade, the Bidens reported a total of $3,690 in charitable donations, or two tenths of a percent of their income. Your read it right, my fellow American voters, the Bidens are stingy when it comes to charitable contribution.
Now it’s a public knowledge that Romney paid a considerable amount of tax last year and in previous years. And I think now is also the time for Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid to apologize not only to Romney but to the American people for his lies and unfounded allegations that Romney paid no taxes for a decade.
It’s an outrageous lie. Records show that Romney paid both, state and federal taxes, every year at an average annual effective rate of 20.20 percent—double the national average. It seems like Reid also has the habit of “speaking through his hat.”
It also turns out that the Romneys claimed only about 55 percent of their actual giving as a charitable deduction which means they actually paid more taxes than they were legally required to. You read it right, my fellow American voters. I also hope those Democrats understand and appreciate their generosity to a federal leviathan also known as the U.S. government.
The American people are getting tired of people like Reid who, like his fellow Democrat, Vice President Joseph Biden, has a habit of putting his foot in his mouth or shooting himself in the foot. It also turns out that Reid still has not released his 2011 tax returns. What a hypocrite and a charlatan.
Regarding Romney’s running mate, U.S. Rep. Paul Ryan, he and his wife, Janna, released two years of their federal income tax returns. Ryan’s paycheck is supplemented by dividends, interest, petroleum-lease payments and other types of income derived through inherited wealth.
The Ryans had a gross income of $323,416 in 2011 which included Ryan’s congressional salary of $153,359. The returns show that the Ryans paid $64,764 in federal taxes in 2011 which translates to 20 percent of their gross income. They made charitable and other tax-deductible contributions of about 4 percent of their income in 2011, or about $13,000, up from $2,600 the year earlier. The couple, who have three children, paid state taxes of $11,416.
Now let’s review the tax returns of His Excellency, the incumbent president of the United States and Democratic presidential candidate, Barack Obama and his wife, Michelle. Their tax records show that they gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent of their income. The Obamas increased the amount they gave to charity when their income rose in 2005 and 2006 after the Illinois senator published a bestselling book. The $137,622 they gave over those two years amounted to more than 5 percent of their $2.6 million income
In 2011, the Obamas earned $1.73 million and paid $453,770 in federal taxes and $51,568 in state taxes. The contributions they made to various charities amounted to $245,075, still a lot less compared to the Romney’s.
This, my fellow American voters, gives us a clear view of both major political parties’ candidates for the highest public office in the nation. Which candidates from either party are more trustworthy and deserving to lead the United States in the next four years? The Obama-Biden team or Romney-Ryan tandem? Based on what you’ve read, just ask yourself this question before you cast your ballots on November 6.
And, more importantly, don’t believe Sen. Harry Reid’s demagoguery. It makes me wonder how much he paid for federal and state taxes and how much contributions he made to charity. I bet he’s as stingy as Biden.