How Does This Make You Feel?

In today's Austin American-Statesman, there is an article entitled "Romney says his tax rate only about 15 percent."

Now, we know that while Mitt Romney worked for Bain Capital, he worked on projects where Bain made a profit by investing in companies that succeeded, but we also know, for good or ill, that he also worked on projects where Bain invested in companies that eventually went bankrupt, leaving the employees without jobs or pensions, and Bain still made a profit.  One may like that or not, or one may not like it but excuse it, but however one feels about it, it's true.

The newspaper article mentioned the following additional truths.

1.  Governor Romney said that "[h]is effective tax rate was 'probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything.'" (The lowest Federal income tax rate is 10%.  Anyone who works and makes $17,000 or more pays at least 15% on everything over $17,000.  The highest tax rate, due on income over $379,150, is 35%.)

2.  Governor Romney earned $374,327 in speaking fees last year, which he characterized as "not very much."  ("[T]hat sum would, by itself, very nearly catapult most families into the top 1 percent of American earners.")

3.  "During 2010 and the first nine months of 2011, the Romney family had at least $9,600,000 in income ... ."  That's 9 million dollars.

4.  Romney acknowledged that most of his income comes from investments.  (The highest federal tax rate on long term capital gains is 15%.  So, theoretically, if you earn $400,000 in income, you'd be in the 35% bracket, but if you earn 9 million dollars in investments, you're only in the 15% tax bracket.)

5.  "President Barack Obama ... reported paying an effective federal tax rate of 26 percent on his 2010 family income."

Don't get me wrong.  I'm not in any way suggesting that Governor Romney or his family have earned even one penny through illegal or unethical means.  I'm not saying that and I have no reason to think that even might be true.  Nor do I begrudge him and his family the fact that they make a lot of money.  I wish I made that kind of money.  I have always said, and it has always been true, that my secret (now not so secret) ambition has always been to be a filthy capitalist pig.

But, I know how these facts make me feel.  First, they reinforce my belief that the rich in America really aren't paying too much in taxes.  As a percentage of income, they often pay a lot less than the rest of us.

Second, I can't help but feel like it's mean-spirited to make anything in the range of $5,000,000 a year (or 9.6 million in less than two years), pay a smaller percentage of that in taxes than most folk, and still want to balance the federal budget by reducing benefits for poor people instead of raising taxes, even a little bit, on rich people.

So, how does it make you feel?