Bloomberg versus Romney, via Brian Williams
Mitt Romney. mittromney.com
11:49 pm Jan. 24, 2012
Appearing on NBC after President Obama's State of the Union address, Mitt Romney found himself on the defensive against Michael Bloomberg.
Brian Williams: What do you say to a fellow wealthy guy, like Mayor Bloomberg of New York, made his fortune in the information-services industry. He said Wednesday he pays the highest income tax rate, 35 percent, he opposes tax provisions that allow some wealthy individuals to pay a lower rate, and went on to say he would end the concept of so-called "carried interest."
Mitt Romney: Uh, you know, we have a low rate for capital gains which is roughly 15 percent tax rate, and there are really two reasons for that. One is that the entities that are taxed at the corporate level pay a 35 percent rate before there's a capital gains, which is the 15 percent, so you have two layers of tax: 35 at the corporate then 15 at the individual for capital gains. So in total it's about half—is being taken by government. The second reason we have a 15 percent capital gains tax rate is to encourage people to invest in building new enterprises, in starting companies and growing companies and adding jobs. If you raise the capital gains tax rate, there will be less money going into creating jobs. If people want more jobs, they don't want to see higher tax rates on job creators.
Points to Romney for honesty, or at least for a willingness to defend a position, after bungling the release of his tax information, which shows him to have profited handsomely from carried interest.
But it's a tough sell, particularly if Romney not only has to convince people that the system that allows him to pay less than 15 percent on an income of more than $20 million is fair, but that people like Michael Bloomberg (and Warren Buffet, and even Rupert Murdoch, who recently called carried interest a "racket") don't understand taxes, or job creation, or both.
