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Point, that because they are talking about how to lower taxes, thats the center of his campaign, we should know how much taxes people like him pay. i mean, hes run g on the idea that people like him need a big tax break, and so if hes paying -- well, we already know he paid 13.9%, which is a lot less than i pay and a lot less than most viewers pay and the other years are almost certainly less than that, and so how is that not germane to the kind of central issue in this campaign? >> well, congre...

He paid $3 million in taxes. his entire income comes from where? well, investments in capital gains. dividends, and interest. the maximum tax rate he could pay on his income is at 15%. but you also have to factor in 4.8 million he declared as a loss carried over from prior years. romneys final rate after deductions is at 13.9%. mitt romney says he doesnt know if he ever paid a lower rate than 13.9%. and senator john mccain says his campaign saw 23 years worth of tax returns? mccain said last mon...

Thats a much more outrageous charge than the charge that romney has used a really standard accounting trick that, again, theres a piece in u."u. news & world report" right now about how romney could have done this. he probably didnt do it for ten years, but its not beyond the realm of possibility at all. >> it may not even be illegal to do what he has done. >> thats kind of the point, right? the point is that were in the middle of a big debate about what is the proper tax rate for millionaires a...

Want us to see. >> the big calculation is he thinks this will hurt him with the american people. they wont comprehend any of the stuff because they dont live like this. here is romney asked about his tax rate from abc news. >> we know that there was one year when you paid about a 13.9% tax rate. can we clear this up by asking you a simple yes or no question? was there ever any year when you paid lower than the 13.9%? >> i havent calculated that. im happy to go back and look. >> david, is it poss...

Standard accounting trick that, again, theres a piece in "u.s. news & world report" right now about how romney could have done this. he probably didnt do it for ten years, but its not beyond the realm of possibility at all. >> it may not even be illegal to do what he has done. >> thats kind of the point, right? the point is that were in the middle of a big debate about what is the proper tax rate for millionaires and for the 1% in this country? and this is a kind of demonstration of how the curr...

Indeed, he is wrong. and clearly, romney does not want to open the taxes. you have to conclude theres something in there he doesnt want us to see. >> the big calculation is he thinks this will hurt him with the american people. they wont comprehend any of this stuff because they dont live like this. here is romney asked about his tax rate by abc news. >> we know that there was one year when you paid about a 13.9% tax rate. can we clear this up by asking you a simple yes or no question? was there...

White house press secretary jay carney basically said, well, put up or shut up. >> you all probably know senator reid well, and, you know, he speaks for himself. theres a question for governor romney, right? he, as recently as last week, i think on abc, said that he would be happy to check if he paid a lower effective tax rate in previous years than the 13.9% that he paid in the year related to the tax return that he did release. >> romney has yet to satisfactorily answer that question or this o...

Starts asking whats wrong with the other three or four years. its very hard to win. >> they called on jack kennedy to release his tax returns so they could know more about the man. >> i get the feeling he can tell you right now his last 12 years of taxes each year what he paid. hes that kind of guy. so tell us. >> he told abc news and would look back and tell them if he paidnd 13.9%. >> he says i want to reduce the corporate tax rate and keep at least the bush tax cuts for the rich. hes always t...

Thats why im so anxious for him to give us the names of the people who have put this forward. i wouldnt be surprised to hear the names are people from the white house or the obama campaign or who knows where theyre coming from. >> romney is dragging the white house into it, and he says he paid a lot of taxes. we only know what he paid for one year. thats all hes released so far. romneys 2010 tax returns show he just paid a 13.9% tax rate. thats less than half the rate that a worker making $60,00...

What could conceivably be unfair about a range of speculation about whats in those tax returns, as long as the candidate refuses to release them and then lies to the plead yeah, to the media that you say is uncomfortable with speculation, that man lies directly to that media on television about something hes going to tell them and then he never tells them. >> all right, so on the one hand its perfectly fair to call mitt romney out for lying which he technically did to abc news when he said he wo...