Romney raked in about $42 million in 2010 and 2011. His effective tax rate was just below 14 percent, lower than that for many American taxpayers. Romney paid $6.2 million to the taxman and donated a staggering $7 million to charity, including $4.1 million to the Mormon church.
In fact, in those two years, Romney paid 16 percent of his income to charity, compared to, er, 2.6 percent by Newt Gingrich.
And what about President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the run-up to their 2008 campaign?
USA Today broke it down here. In 2007, the Obamas gave more than $240,000 to charity, about 5.7 percent of their income. The Bidens gave an average of $369 to charity a year for the decade before he moved to the Naval Observatory – about 0.3 percent of their income. Back in 1997, then veep Al Gore and his then wife Tipper gave $353.
Since becoming veep, Biden hasn’t become much more generous. In 2010, Biden gave $5,350, about 1.4 percent of income. That same year, Romney gave some $3 million. The national average is about three percent.
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Did you hear the one about Biden giving the homeless guy a cup of coffee. Never mind, no one did.
jaj48@aol.com JAJ48@aol.com http://www.smashwords.com/books/view/109312
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Democrat politicians want government to dole out the charity — with strings attached. Republicans connected to a religion give more. What’s Newt’s religion?