I can say foot-n-mouth, sure.

But for team Obama Biden fans, they probably don't like where this discussion ultimately is going.

1). Voluntary donations to the federal government? Game on!

2). Comparison of tax deductible & charitable donations? Bring it!

Sorry, but I think Obama would have better luck talking about the security he provides his State Dept employees in the middle East.

Especially when you compare Biden's Catholic donations to Mitt's Mormon donations. 0.13% to 13%!

Wow! I guess I better vote for Obama.

Good/bad this is my problem with Obama's kill the rich scheme.

They have more deductions and better CPAs. If you raise their marginal rate to 100%, if they have $0 AGI what difference does it make as witnessed by Obama's buddy Immelt at GE.

Maybe so, I see who he's running against, and that guy defined unprepared. Hasn't gotten any better, even.

He has 3 years to correct his deductions, right Jack. so no big deal cutting the deductions.

What a weird contortion. Doesn't want to let the Bush tax cuts expire on the rich, but voluntarily limits his deductions so he pays more? What is the message: His taxes are too low for the amount he earns! "I'm against higher taxes for my income bracket, but I'm willing to pay more than the law requires if it will make me look like I care, and get me elected." Obama is really lucky he got Mitchie Rich to run against.

Jack, I'm glad you highlighted Romney's donation of $4 million. No matter how one wants to spin this for Obama's benefit, it won't work. I prize Romney's donation far more than Biden or Obama's slim givings, and much less than Romney's on a percentage of income comparison. Romney gave 15% of his income while Obama gave 1%.

I have a friend with a small Portland business that usually does well. He'd rather give most of his profits after giving his employees large bonuses, health care, college benefits to his employee's children, and retaining what is needed for business growth to several charitable causes than give it to the federal/state governments. Many people think that way, but seldom get recognized for it, nor do they care. Romney +.

That's "foopfh awb mowah" as Mitt likes to say, no matter which side of his mouth he uses, or which of his two faces is trying to grin at the same time.

Taxes, health care, the 47% who Mitt won't worry about, as Joe Scarborough opined last week; Romney is not a true conservative, nor is he a courageous liberal. He is an ambitious man, and that's not enough to be elected President.
In trying to pander to everyone he pleases no one.

Tax code and drug laws are to ensnare the little guy.

This election is all about which pirate flag you want raised over the White House. The Nevada/Utah dirty money slime or the Chicago dirty money slime.

Wall Street is doing the smart thing and supporting both flags.

he pleases no one

He seems to be satisfactory to a fair contingent of nut cases posting here. A more interesting question to me than his "voluntary" and likely temporary contribution to the IRS is, where did the rest of his 2011 income go? In January of 2012, the estimate disclosed for 2011 was in the neighborhood of $20 million. Now the top line is closer to $13 million. Are the Pricewaterhousecoopers people as bad at counting as they are at punctuation?

There are rumors out there from former Bain executives that Romney paid virtually zero taxes for about a decade, which would explain his reluctance to release older tax returns.

You do all realize that Obama is going to be reelected don't you?

It is true that the Obamas gave less than 1% of income to charity from 2000 to 2004. We don't know what Mitt gave during those years, because he's hiding something and won't release his returns.

But what about now?

ABC news: "[In 2011] He and the first lady donated $172,000 to charity, or about 22 percent of their adjusted gross income, according to their tax returns."

Sorry, but I don't really care about political talking points among the political junkies.
I do care about:

1. The miserable economy

2. Unemployment

3. National Debt

4. Low interest rates despite growing
inflation. (Sorry Mr. Bernanke, in
the REAL WORLD gas and food prices
Count.)

5. Medicare

6. Social Security

If George W. Bush, Dick Cheney, and the rest of of the oil plutocracy in power from 2001 to 2008 had NOT gone off to Iraq on an expensive, failed and wasteful war, there would be plenty of money and NO debt.
Let's remember who started and perpetuated this economic mess.

pn,

I hadn't heard that.
Thanks for reminding everyone.

Not all "charities" are created equally. The vast majority of Romney's charitable giving was in the form of required tithing to the Mormon church. Painting that as a voluntary contribution to programs that directly help the poor or needy is quite a stretch.

http://www.thenation.com/node/170105

i wonder if Romney is not showing his taxes not because of his alleged percentage of payment, but because of his tithing requirements to the LDS church.
If he made more money that he declared to the church, he might owe additional "charitable contributions" to the church.
That could be embarrassing.

It all depends if you are an Obama fan, or not.....I'm not, and I will vote for Romney no matter what anybody says, prints or publishes.

Oh that is a thoughtful remark that encourages open and interesting discussion of real issues.

I will vote for Romney no matter what anybody says, prints or publishes.

I rest my case.

There are probably two justifications for a Romney vote:

1. A belief that it makes no difference whatsoever who occupies the White House.

2. The expectation that the Republicans will set out to destroy the country if they can't have control. The debt ceiling showdown was a pretty good leading indicator of this.

If either of these proves true, our constitution is good for nothing.

Portland Native: "In trying to pander to everyone he pleases no one."

Oh that is a thoughtful remark that encourages open and interesting discussion of real issues.

The expectation that the Republicans will set out to destroy the country if they can't have control.

If people like Obama and Wyden weren't such sellouts, this would be laughable.

TacoDave
The statement that Romney is pandering to everyone and pleasing few, is not an original thought on my part. However it seems to me that Romney has reversed his more moderate views on contraception, abortion, health care, debt service, taxes, global climate change, and a whole bunch of other stuff to try and satisfy the conservative wing of the Republican party. In doing this he seems to have alienated the more independently inclined voters who would prefer to leave the social wedge issues out of the election process. Yet some of right wing don't seem to believe he has really changed his opinions.
I think there is merit to discuss the reversals of Romney's opinions to attempt to determine what sort of President he might become.

I'm still voting for the guy who doesn't think what happened in Libya was "a bump in the road".

If people like Obama and Wyden weren't such sellouts, this would be laughable.

And if you and others didn't consider Obama a sellout (a positiont on which I beg leave to disagree), the prospect of a Romney candidacy would be even more laughable than it is.

TacoDave is just doing that false equivalency thing that has become the GOP's main rebuttal to anything and everything Obama. Like how Romney's 47% debacle is the exact same thing as Obama's "shocking" comments on redistribution.

Saying that nothing will change your mind IS pretty much the definition of not encouraging open conversation. By contrast, there has been, and continues to be, lots of talk about Mitt the Etch-a-Sketch, even by his supporters. IMO, the entire election is a conversation about whether Romney's pandering will please enough people.

FOUR MORE YEARS

Four more years of high unemployment
Four more years of sky rocketing deficit
Four more years of slamming family values
Four more years of blaming everyone else

versus

A guy who doesn't and never did drugs
A guy who pays more in taxes than he has to
A guy who turned the Olympics around
A guy who knows how to run a business
A guy who knows what it's like to meet a payroll
A guy who dealt with a legislature that was the opposite party and got things done

Yeah - Obama ain't getting my vote

This has to be one of the most hilarious comments sections of the election season. Thanks everyone.

Not much listening left in this election cycle.

Allan L. -

You missed one overriding reason to vote for Romney - HE'S NOT OBAMA!!!!

The dust bunny under my desk would have made a better president than Obama has.

Chuck - agreed. It's getting silly.

On a serious note, paying taxes that low while making that much money just looks bad. Especially right now. Fiddling the numbers so he doesn't look even worse gives me a huge giggle.

Most accountants and financial advisers look at tax rates in a more comprehensive manner. In most cases the dollars that create capital gain taxes at 15% are after one has paid up to a 37% tax rate to get the dollars that create capital gains. Combined that is a 52% tax rate.

We don't know precisely what Romney has paid in tax rates to accumulate the dollars to create his capital gains. But he certainly has paid much more taxes than the 47% of Americans that no pay federal taxes at all. And he certainly has given more to charity than 99% of Americans. So keep on bad mouthing him.

"Fifty years ago, his father probably paid some taxes." Keep on babbling.

Clinton summed it all up at the convention:
They left a big mess. They said Obama didn't clean it up fast enough,so they want us to put them back in.

"there would be plenty of money and NO debt. Let's remember who started and perpetuated "

Sure, Obama's been prsident for 4 years, how much longer do you want to keep blaming Bush?

During which time Obama's made a pretty good contribution to the deficit. We could also roll back Bush's plan to pay for senior's prescriptions if you want since that contributes a lot to the deficit.

I still don't get why Obama's still trying to win an unwnnable battle in Afghanistan.

Remember: EVERYTHING is GWBUSH!!!111!!!'s fault. Including Obama. Let's get rid of Obama, and put BUSH1!!!111!! hatred to rest.

Ex-bartender: I was actually just quoting word-for-word a post from above. No false equivalencies here, although you can make up whatever "GOP is dum" story you want if you feel like reading into it.