Can We Shut Up About Romney's Taxes Already?

Perhaps this will do it: Between taxes Mitt Romney paid on his investments and money he gave to charity, Mitt Romney actually gave away 58% of his income.

With President Obama expected to use his second-chance debate this week to portray Mitt Romney as an uncaring rich guy, a new analysis of the GOP candidate's wealth shows that the millionaire was so generous that he kept just 42 percent of his income.


Obama's team has mocked the 14.1 percent tax rate that Romney is in as shirking his responsibility. But Charlottesville, Va.-based Marotta Wealth Management, which pens a widely-followed research blog, found that when Romney's tax burden and charitable gifts are included, he paid out 57.9 percent of his income.

"Giving $2.3 million to charity certainly should not be the basis of any criticism," said David Marotta. "It is money the Romney's did not keep for themselves, so I am counting it with the money lost to taxes."

His basic math for Romney's 2011 return: $18.6 million in income minus $10.8 million in taxes and charity results in a net of $7.8 million, 42.1 percent of gross. Ditto for 2010, said Marotta.

Let's remember, Romney already paid taxes on all the income he made in the last couple of years when he earned it. He has had no earned income in the last several years so this is money htat has been double-taxed. This means he probably paid a good 40% on that money between the taxes he paid on the income and the taxes he paid on the investments. Overall, Romney paid more in taxes and charitable giving in 2011 than Barack Obama's entire net worth -- and Barack Obama is not a poor man thanks to his ghostwritten books about the dreams from his communist father.

What does this mean? This illustrates exactly what anyone with a brain knows: Most rich people -- even rich liberals -- aren't greedy. They give copius amounts of money to charity and they create charities and charitable causes that do Americans directing their own money to charitable causes they support do far more good than the government does when it taxes it away from them and redistributes it. Not only do rich people like Romney create jobs for middle class folks, they do worlds of good for the least among us by donating to charities that help the poor and downtrodden. Many times, these charities work to instill responsibility and teach those they help important lessons about self-respect and self-sufficiency, unlike like the government which simply throws money at them with no strings attached.

So will you ObamaBot Zombies kindly shut up about Romney and his taxes? No, probably not.