Drip, Drip, Drip...
By Mary Hannington
"Reagan proved that deficits don't matter."
- Dick Cheney"What I'm hearing, which is sort of scary, is they all want to stay in Texas. Everyone is so overwhelmed by the hospitality. And so many of the people in the arena here, you know, were underprivileged anyway, so this is working very well for them."
- Barbara Bush on Katrina victims living in the Super Dome"I know that there are some who say, ‘Let’s just get more money from the higher-income people, let’s just tax them some more', and I understand that’s popular in a lot of people’s minds. But just don’t forget that old Margaret Thatcher line, ‘Sooner or later you run out of other people’s money.’ ”
- Mitt Romney
Um, who is running out of money?
Mitt Romney is worth an estimated $190 - $250 million, and of this, $100 million went as a gift to his children and due to some absurd tax law he paid NO gift taxes on this amount. He estimates he’ll pay $3.23 million in federal taxes for 2011, on income of $20.9 million. Romney will have $5.7 million in itemized deductions, including $4 million donated to charity. The bulk of those charitable donations -$2.6 million - went to the Mormon Church.
Outside of the charitable donations $1.7 million was for other itemized deductions meaning property taxes, mortgage interest (if any), all manner of medical expenses and any state or local taxes that would be deducted from income.
Imagine spending almost 2 million on any of these things.
He DID make income, but no doubt that was wiped away by the HUGE amount of itemized deductions and you may call him charitable, but cynic that I am, I’m willing to bet his itemized deductions match what is allowable for his income. In other words, rather than pay a higher tax rate on income he can give the money to charitable groups he supports ie; the church and deduct it instead of paying the government in taxes.
You can estimate 2010 income here:
Of course this is 2010, but it looks to me like you can get pretty close to $4 million if one looks at the income categories, speaker’s fees and imagines the amount of interest income (not disclosed) and I'm guessing here, but I imagine his yearly income doesn't fluctuate wildly.
Republicans argue that during earlier years as Romney earned his money he paid taxes at the regular rate, so it is now fair that he should pay less on the money he now earns off that money in the form of capital gains. Kinda like saying "Congratulations! You are now tremendously wealthy. You no longer need to give to your country."
Let’s look at how trickle down theory is working in this case. The Mormon church did well, but will they use the money to help people or to build another church? Or put it toward genealogy research so that they have a database of all our dead relatives and these families can finally be saved?
It is going to take some dough to get all the way back to Adam. Yes, that is their goal.
Romney’s kids did fantastic, but will they use their money to build factories and companies and put people to work? And how many people does Mitt currently employ?
Good accountants for sure!
No doubt lawyers…
And no doubt low-income positions abound in his household – maids, chefs, drivers, greensmen, pool boys, maybe a pilot or two, assistants and what not.
Not much tricklin’ going on here is there?
Meanwhile, the IRS is coming after Ms. 91, who makes .001% of what Mitt Romney does, for back taxes which she probably didn’t file because she has dementia and gets confused. Sure she owes them, but it’s a hardship for her to have to pay the pittance they are after.
And on another note...
Romney’s family traces back to the Pratt family in colonial times. His great grandfather Pratt had three wives and his great, great grandfather had four. This is one of the reasons for the Mexican heritage that Mitt so proudly claims. Both Pratt and Romney families fled, along with other Mormons, to Mexico because the good ole U S of A frowned on polygamy. His great, great grandfather on the Romney side also had two wives.
“…the kingdom of God cannot rise independent of Gentile nations until we produce, manufacture, and make every article of use, convenience or necessity among our people."
- Brigham YoungThese two families are powerful white Mormon families, in both the church and in politics, which both trace back to colonial times and though some of them were born in Mexico it was not necessarily because they dug the place. They operated a Mexican Mission in Chihuahua in order to convert the Mexicans there. In other words, they were there to CHANGE the culture… not embrace it.
In a 1997 article in Time magazine it was estimated that the Mormon Church’s assets were worth 11 billion dollars. "The church owns many for-profit assets including agribusiness, media, insurance, travel and real estate. Deseret Management Corp., the company through which the church holds almost all its commercial assets, is one of the largest owners of farm and ranchland in the country, including 49 for-profit parcels in addition to the Deseret Ranch. Besides the Bonneville International chain and Beneficial Life, the church owns a 52% holding in ZCMI, Utah's largest department-store chain." These provide over $600 million in income, in addition to this, in 1996 the church brought in $5.2 billion in tithes.
Mitt's mamma used to sing American anthems and according to Mitt he LOVES this country, perhaps that is because his family and the church want to own it one day.
If I had $17 million after taxes and $100 million in the bank? My mind reels with the thoughts... I could build schools, I could give people housing, I could adopt children, I could, I could, I could... why don't they?
