Romney's team clearly taught him just how to handle the "tax breaks for the rich" issue, and unfortunately, Obama's team didn't prepare him to call Romney out in a convincing way.
Romney acts like he isn't cutting taxes for the rich at all. Maybe he isn't, but he is keeping intact tax breaks and tax cuts initiated by George W. Bush, that Obama hasn't been able to persuade the Republican Congress to get rid of. When Romney points out how much the deficit has increased under Obama, why doesn't Obama mention that part of the reason is the tax cuts that the Republicans refuse to budge on?
Romney also says that the rich will continue to pay 60% of the nation's taxes. The are two problems with this:
1. At least once he said the 60% in a way that might have made it sound like that was the tax RATE on the rich. People who follow the issues knew what Romney was saying, but people who don't follow them all that closely -- undecided independents -- may well have heard that and thought that the tax rate was 60%. I'm not sure what the right response was for Obama; perhaps it would have been best to mention again what their tax rate really is.
2. More importantly, an easy response would have been: This is an example of the problem -- he wants to keep taxes on the rich at the same rate, even while the rich are the only people in this economy getting richer. From Steven Rattner's March 25, 2012 NYT Op-Ed (which cites statistics derived by French economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez from American tax returns):
For Tax Year 2003
For Tax Year 2002
For Tax Year 2001
For Tax Year 1999
Romney acts like he isn't cutting taxes for the rich at all. Maybe he isn't, but he is keeping intact tax breaks and tax cuts initiated by George W. Bush, that Obama hasn't been able to persuade the Republican Congress to get rid of. When Romney points out how much the deficit has increased under Obama, why doesn't Obama mention that part of the reason is the tax cuts that the Republicans refuse to budge on?
Romney also says that the rich will continue to pay 60% of the nation's taxes. The are two problems with this:
1. At least once he said the 60% in a way that might have made it sound like that was the tax RATE on the rich. People who follow the issues knew what Romney was saying, but people who don't follow them all that closely -- undecided independents -- may well have heard that and thought that the tax rate was 60%. I'm not sure what the right response was for Obama; perhaps it would have been best to mention again what their tax rate really is.
2. More importantly, an easy response would have been: This is an example of the problem -- he wants to keep taxes on the rich at the same rate, even while the rich are the only people in this economy getting richer. From Steven Rattner's March 25, 2012 NYT Op-Ed (which cites statistics derived by French economists Thomas Piketty and Emmanuel Saez from American tax returns):
"In 2010, as the nation continued to recover from the recession,
a dizzying 93 percent of the additional income created in the country
that year, compared to 2009 — $288 billion — went to the top 1 percent
of taxpayers, those with at least $352,000 in income. That delivered an average single-year pay increase of 11.6 percent to each of these households.
"Still more astonishing was the extent to which the super rich got rich faster than the merely rich. In
2010, 37 percent of these additional earnings went to just the top 0.01
percent, a teaspoon-size collection of about 15,000 households with
average incomes of $23.8 million. These fortunate few saw their incomes rise by 21.5 percent."
So even though the rich and the super-rich are getting richer and richer, Romney wants them to pay the same share of taxes that they've been paying. How does that make sense? If the income of the rich is rising faster than that of the middle and lower classes, and yet the overall tax burden of the rich is kept constant, then that translates to a tax CUT for the rich. That's simple math.
And as I've explained numerous times before, the vast majority of the rich are not job creators -- they are skimmers.
The below charts, from the IRS via the National Tax Payer's Union, show the percent of taxes paid by different income percentiles from 1999-2009. We can see from this that Romney's 60% is the percentage of all Federal Taxes that are paid by the top 5% of earners -- i.e. those with Adjusted Gross Income greater than $154,643. Again, as reported by Rattner, AGI for the rich went up in 2010.
Who Pays Income Taxes and How Much?
Tax Year 2009
|
Percentiles
Ranked by AGI
|
AGI
Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage
of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top
1%
|
$343,927
|
36.73
|
|
Top
5%
|
$154,643
|
58.66
|
|
Top
10%
|
$112,124
|
70.47
|
|
Top
25%
|
$66,193
|
87.30
|
|
Top
50%
|
$32,396
|
97.75
|
|
Bottom
50%
|
<$32,396
|
2.25
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
Tax Year 2008
|
Percentiles
Ranked by AGI
|
AGI
Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage
of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top
1%
|
$380,354
|
38.02
|
|
Top
5%
|
$159,619
|
58.72
|
|
Top
10%
|
$113,799
|
69.94
|
|
Top
25%
|
$67,280
|
86.34
|
|
Top
50%
|
$33,048
|
97.30
|
|
Bottom
50%
|
<$33,048
|
2.7
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
Tax Year 2007
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$410,096
|
40.42
|
|
Top 5%
|
$160,041
|
60.63
|
|
Top 10%
|
$113,018
|
71.22
|
|
Top 25%
|
$66,532
|
86.59
|
|
Top 50%
|
$32,879
|
97.11
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$32,879
|
2.89
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
Tax Year 2006
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$388,806
|
39.89
|
|
Top 5%
|
$153,542
|
60.14
|
|
Top 10%
|
$108,904
|
70.79
|
|
Top 25%
|
$64,702
|
86.27
|
|
Top 50%
|
$31,987
|
97.01
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$31,987
|
2.99
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
For Tax Year 2005
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$364,657
|
39.38
|
|
Top 5%
|
$145,283
|
59.67
|
|
Top 10%
|
$103,912
|
70.30
|
|
Top 25%
|
$62,068
|
85.99
|
|
Top 50%
|
$30,881
|
96.93
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$30,881
|
3.07
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
For Tax Year 2004
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$328,049
|
36.89
|
|
Top 5%
|
$137,056
|
57.13
|
|
Top 10%
|
$99,112
|
68.19
|
|
Top 25%
|
$60,041
|
84.86
|
|
Top 50%
|
$30,122
|
96.70
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$30,122
|
3.30
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$295,495
|
34.27
|
|
Top 5%
|
$130,080
|
54.36
|
|
Top 10%
|
$94,891
|
65.84
|
|
Top 25%
|
$57,343
|
83.88
|
|
Top 50%
|
$29,019
|
96.54
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$29,019
|
3.46
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$285,424
|
33.71
|
|
Top 5%
|
$126,525
|
53.80
|
|
Top 10%
|
$92,663
|
65.73
|
|
Top 25%
|
$56,401
|
83.90
|
|
Top 50%
|
$28,654
|
96.50
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$28,654
|
3.50
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$292,913
|
33.89
|
|
Top 5%
|
$127,904
|
53.25
|
|
Top 10%
|
$92,754
|
64.89
|
|
Top 25%
|
$56,085
|
82.90
|
|
Top 50%
|
$28,528
|
96.03
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$28,528
|
3.97
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
For Tax Year 2000
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$313,469
|
37.42
|
|
Top 5%
|
$128,336
|
56.47
|
|
Top 10%
|
$92,144
|
67.33
|
|
Top 25%
|
$55,225
|
84.01
|
|
Top 50%
|
$27,682
|
96.09
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$27,682
|
3.91
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service |
||
|
Percentiles Ranked by AGI
|
AGI Threshold on Percentiles
|
Percentage of Federal Personal Income Tax Paid
|
|
Top 1%
|
$293,415
|
36.18
|
|
Top 5%
|
$120,846
|
55.45
|
|
Top 10%
|
$87,682
|
66.45
|
|
Top 25%
|
$52,965
|
83.54
|
|
Top 50%
|
$26,415
|
96.00
|
|
Bottom 50%
|
<$26,415
|
4.00
|
|
Note: AGI is Adjusted Gross Income
Source: Internal Revenue Service | ||
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