GOP candidate Romney says he's paid at least 13 percent in taxes every year for a decade. In 2011, he made about $21 million. Middle income families, making from $50,000 to $75,000 a year, average 12.8 percent.?
Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney writes on a white board as he talks about Medicare during a news conference at Spartanburg International Airport, Thursday, Aug. 16, 2012, in Greer, S.C. Mr. Romney also said he has paid at least 13 percent a year in taxes for the past decade.
Evan Vucci/AP
EnlargeRepublican presidential contender Mitt?Romney?declared Thursday he has paid at least 13 percent of his income in federal?taxes?every year for the past decade, offering that new detail while still decrying a "small-minded" fascination over returns he will not release. President Barack Obama's campaign shot back in doubt: "Prove it."
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Campaigning separately,?Romney?and running mate Paul Ryan also scrambled to explain their views on overhauling Medicare, the health care program relied on by millions of seniors.
Romney, the former company CEO, set up a whiteboard to make his case with a marker, while lawmaker Ryan resorted to congressional process language to explain why his budget plan includes the same $700 billion Medicare cut that he and?Romney?are assailing Obama for endorsing.
Essentially, Ryan said, he had to do it because Obama did it first.
Politically, both topics tie into major elements of the presidential race less than three months before the election: how well the candidates relate to the daily concerns and to the life circumstances of typical voters. Democrats are using the?tax?issue to raise doubts about?Romney's?trustworthiness ? or, as Republicans contend, to distract from a weak economic recovery under Obama.
Romney's?comments in South Carolina ? at a news conference designed to focus on Medicare ? showed that he remains sensitive to criticism of his?tax?payments but still is determined to release no more than two years of records despite contrary advice from some prominent Republicans.
The Obama campaign has aired an ad that, without evidence, raises the prospect that?Romney?paid no?taxes some years. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., elevated that suggestion by claiming, also without proof, that an anonymous source told him?Romney?had not paid?taxes?for 10 years.
"I did go back and look at my?taxes?and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent,"?Romneytold reporters after he landed in South Carolina for a fundraising event. "I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid?taxes?every single year."
Aides later said?Romney?meant to say 13.9 percent, the amount he already disclosed for his 2010 federal return.
On average, middle income families, those making from $50,000 to $75,000 a year, pay 12.8 percent of their income in federal?taxes, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. In 2010 and 2011,Romney?made about $21 million a year.
Romney?is able to keep his?tax?rate low because most of his income is from investments, which are generally taxed?at a lower rate than wages. That type of legal?tax?figuring is something Obama has proposed changing, although his campaign notably said nothing about?Romney's?self-described?tax?rate itself.
Instead, the campaign targeted only?Romney's?truthfulness, refusing to accept his answer and pressuring him to release years of earlier?tax?returns.
"Prove it," said Obama spokeswoman Lis Smith. "Given Mitt?Romney's?secrecy about his returns, coupled with the revelations in just the one return we have seen to date and the inconsistencies between this one return and his other financial disclosures, he has forfeited the right to have us take him just at his word."
Reid's office said much the same.?Romney?demanded that Reid "put up" the name of his anonymous source.
"Given the challenges that America faces ? 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty ? the fascination with?taxes?I've paid I find to be very small-minded,"Romney?said.
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