Following Keith’s eirenic suggestion about how Obama should play the candidate tax issue in a high-minded way, I’ve made an instructive little table comparing the federal income taxes of the Obama and Romney households since 2000.
Corrections welcome. [2007 corrected already, thanks to commenters!] I’ll update it if necessary. Spreadsheet here with sources. Feel free to reuse without acknowledgement (the data are in the public domain and the processing trivial), and improve the graphics. (My software won’t generate good resolution in jpg format.) However, in this case – and contrary to normal good visual practice – I think it’s important to keep the precise numbers.
The Biden table can readily be prepared when he has an opposite number, who will presumably follow his leader’s model of non-disclosure.
I think the Obama’s tax rate for 2007 is closer to 33% than 52.6%, if the other two figures are correct.
Shouldn’t the tax rate for 2007 be 33.7% rather than 52.6%?
Thanks to both. Error in pasting the the formula, fixed.
…the Obamas’…!
Why not? They are joint declarations. See the source here. Michelle had a good salary as a hospital administrator before the 2008 campaign.
Sigh. November can’t come fast enough.
(It’s not that I have any sympathies for Mitt Romney, but I do remember a time when this blog was discussing interesting policy issues rather than the tax history of a used car salesman [1] with presidential ambitions.)
[1] My apologies to all actual used car salesmen for this figure of speech.
Point taken. My next post will either be about the Olympics again or energy.
I thought that the President’s salary was round about $400,000/year, what are they doing to make 10x that?
Primarily book sales, as I understand it. The president also happens to be a bestseller author.
I think you have “adiusted” or “adlusted” up at the top on both sides.
Thanks, equal opportunity typo fixed. At least it wasn’t about the Clintons.