Mitt Romney Paid His Fair Share in Taxes 150 Times Over (ContributorNetwork)

COMMENTARY | I'm a Democrat, but my party is dead wrong in the way it is treating millionaires like Mitt Romney in relation to their tax returns. According to Bloomberg, the GOP presidential contender has, over the past two years, paid an effective tax rate of 13.9 percent, about $6 million. This is far less than the 30 percent in taxes paid by most middle class Americans. Romney's rate is lower as the result of his income derivation of investments instead of active employment.

Democrats seem determined to castigate Romney and others in his income bracket as paying less than their fair share. According to the Sydney Herald, President Barack Obama accused millionaires of paying less than their fair share in taxes during his State of the Union address.

Indeed, during the address, as transcribed on NPR, the president said: "Before we take money away from our schools or scholarships away from our students, we should ask millionaires to give up their tax break. It's not a matter of punishing their success. It's about promoting America's success."

The problem is the president isn't "asking." He's demanding it through the tax code. Let's simplify this:

When I go to McDonalds, I can order a basic hamburger from the value menu for $1. Imagine now that Romney was right behind me in line, ordered the same hamburger but was told he would need to pay $150 for the same hamburger. Is that fair?

Our nation's budget isn't made up of percentages. It's made up of whole dollars -- about 6 trillion of them. We have 300 million inhabitants, splitting the same bill. If we were to fairly divide that bill by the number of inhabitants, each of us would owe $20,000.

I get that most of us can't afford to pay $20,000 per family member in taxes and as such, I am grateful that rich people pick up the lion's share of the tab. Otherwise, I'd be in real trouble.

But in Romney's case, he paid $3 million in a tax year -- 150 times his "fair share." But instead of being thanked, people are crying "foul." Why? They don't think he should pay $150 to the average person's $1 for our national hamburger. They think he should pay $300. We need to re-examine the meaning of fairness.

Source: http://us.rd.yahoo.com/dailynews/rss/gop/*http%3A//news.yahoo.com/s/ac/20120125/pl_ac/10884549_mitt_romney_paid_his_fair_share_in_taxes_150_times_over

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