- #71
- 15,472
- 701
Whether the Romneys paid their "fair" share is a dicey issue. What's "fair"?mathwonk said:I suspect Republicans would be a lot more believable on "lower taxes" arguments if they would agree that high earners like Romney should pay at the same tax rate as middle class families pay, not half.
The Romneys had a low effective tax rate for two primary reasons. They donated a lot to charitable organizations and their income derived almost entirely from capital gains. Do you want to eliminate the charitable deduction? Most (all?) charities do not want that to happen. Should long term capital gains be taxed the same as income? There are a number of reasons why the answer to that question has to be no. That said, six months is not "long term" by any sane definition of "long term". For example, the inflation argument for why capital gains must be treated differently than income falls to pieces with that six month cutoff between short and long term capital gains.The referenced post is a red herring. The Republicans are not going to improve their chances next time around (the subject of this thread) by making themselves look just like the Democrats. The Democrats already own the center left and points leftward. The Republicans need to stay true to their roots or there is no point in having two parties. The problem in my opinion is that the current makeup of the Republican party has forced the center right to vote Democratic.