Mitt Romney admits: I pay 15% tax on $200m personal fortune

The fact that a candidate with wealth of $200m pays income tax at an effective rate of 15% says more about the taxing (or lack of) of the extremely rich rather than how far removed most candidates (of both parties it must be said) really are from the 'man in the street'. Though of course the acceptance of the wealth of those involved is even more bizarre when one considers that coming across as 'one of us' seems to be one of the most important boxes to tick for any US presidential candidate.
The question is whether the candidate, party or electorate think this is ok in current times of hardship.

http://www.guardian.co.uk/world/2012/jan/17/mitt-romney-speaking-fees-tax

Of course the figure of $200m is 'wealth', not income (I specifically don't use the term 'earnings') but since Romney considers the $370,000 he gets for speaking engagements 'not very much' then presumably his (not disclosed) yearly take is considerable, even after the whopping 15% tax he pays in the socialist commune Obama has supposedly turned the US into....

It's economic policies, stupid

It's a valid point that for all the fascination with the 'cultural' views in the GOP race, on religion, rights (and maybe even slightly race) too little attention is being paid to the implications of candidates' economic 'ideologies'. While the republican party makes headlines with stances on abortion and gay rights, what is more relevant to the vast majority of people are the economic dogmas.

Mitt Romney, candidate of the 1% :
http://www.guardian.co.uk/commentisfree/cifamerica/2012/jan/09/mitt-romney-candidate-of-the-1-per-cent