Mitt Romney's Taxes and the Question of 'Fairness'
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America's so-called "progressive" tax rates used to rise with income. Mitt Romney's returns demonstrate it's the other way around. Would the President's push for "tax fairness" give everybody a "fair shot" or is it "class warfare" designed to get votes by dividing the country? Also, why is Ray Lahood's son being held in Cairo? On Reporter's Notebook, a new job for WikiLeaks founder Julian Assange: an English-language talk show on Russian TV.
Banner image: Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney holds a campaign event on January 24, 2012 in Lehigh Acres, Florida. (Photo by Chip Somodevilla/Getty Images)
Making News
Why Is Ray LaHood's Son Being Held in Cairo? ()
Sam LaHood, the son of US Secretary of Transportation Ray LaHood, was detained Saturday by authorities in Egypt. He's not under arrest, but he's been told he can't leave the country. Noel King is a freelance reporter based in Cairo.
Guests:
- Noel King: freelance reporter
Links:
Main Topic
Tax Fairness and the Presidential Campaign ()
When Mitt Romney released his tax returns, they showed a rate of just 14 percent on $20 million in profits, dividends and interest. The next day in his State of the Union address, President Obama called for tax reform that's become known as the Buffett Rule, calling economic fairness "the defining issue of our time." The President called for a 30 percent minimum tax on millionaires. "Tax fairness" will be part of his reelection campaign. Romney says it's all about "envy," and Republicans call it "class warfare." We ask a prominent pollster if Americans really care. Whatever happened to "progressive" taxation, where the richest pay the highest rates of all? With lower rates, do they really invest in creating new jobs? If their rates are increased, will they be penalized for achieving the American Dream?
Guests:
- Jim Tankersley: National Journal, @jimtankersley
- Frank Newport: Gallup Poll, @galluppoll
- Roberton 'Bob' Williams: Tax Policy Center
- Jacob Hacker: Yale University
- Tom Donlan: Barron's National Business and Financial Weekly, @barronsonline
Links:
- Elizabeth Warren discusses taxes on 'The Daily Show'
- Tankersley on Obama channeling the Occupy movement in his SOTU address
- Gallup on the fairness of the US economic system
- Tax Policy Center on the tax plans of Republican presidential candidates
- Hacker's 'Winner-Take-All Politics: How Washington Made the Rich Richer--and Turned Its Back on the Middle Class'
- Donlan's 'World of Wealth: How Capitalism Turns Profit into Progress'
Reporter's Notebook
WikiLeaks' Julian Assange to Host TV Talk Show ()
The founder of WikiLeaks is still under house arrest appealing his extradition to Sweden, but Julian Assange is taping a new TV show in the mansion where he lives in Britain. Russia Today will air in English -- in Russia. Funded by the Kremlin, the program is generally regarded as an exercise in image enhancement. What does it want with Assange?
Guests:
- Nastassia Astrasheuskaya: Reuters
- Noam Cohen: New York Times
Links:
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