320.1 electoral votes, up nearly 11 in the last couple weeks or last week, romney at 217.9. 320 is a lot of electoral votes. that would be i think a mandate. so well i don t know if i would call ate mandate necessarily. if you have a small advantage in the popular vote and then if the swing states behave accordingly, obama s polling is stronger in the swing states it would look impressive on the map, it would be a below average margin for the incumbent. romney does have his work cut out for him. of the six we talked about before, the two biggest problems are probably ohio where he hasn t led in the poll by a long time and, in fact, his best polls put him down three or four points. the worst put him down nine or ten points. ohio is a huge problem for romney right now and wisconsin where he seemed to get a bounce often due when he named paul ryan has faded and see how single digits, a couple
can still deduct state and local taxes. you ll find all that out later after you elect me. i ve never heard this kind of presidential on taxes by a candidate before, and i just can t quite imagine a politician thinking that could work. well, i mean, this is an inept campaign, obviously. but i don t know why mr. romney wants to talk about taxes because whenever he talks about taxes it just remind people of his own tax returns that we haven t seen. and lawrence, he paid what, 14%? 14.1% on massive amounts of money that he received. the average ohioan pays 20.1% compared to mitt romney s 14.1%. that fact alone should cause mitt romney to want to stay away from the discussion of taxes. but i still think that there s something in his tax returns
mortgage deduction, whether you can still deduct state and local taxes. you ll find all that out later after you elect me. i ve never heard this kind of presidential on taxes by a candidate before, and i just can t quite imagine a politician thinking that could work. well, i mean, this is an inept campaign, obviously. but i don t know why mr. romney wants to talk about taxes because whenever he talks about taxes it just remind people of his own tax returns that we haven t seen. and lawrence, he paid what, 14%? 14.1% on massive amounts of money that he received. the average ohioan pays 20.1% compared to mitt romney s 14.1%. that fact alone should cause mitt romney to want to stay away from the discussion of taxes. but i still think that there s
under assault by law makers from across the country, organized labor is fighting back. this year, it s giving politicians an ultimatum. sign what they re calling the second bill of rights or face the consequences in november. the pledge calls for better wages and protections for unionized workers. joining the panel now to talk about the future of labor is daniel katz, dean of the school of labor studies and dean of the school of professional studies at national labor college. also editor of labor rising. great to have you on the program. we were just debating the made in america scandal engulfing the u.s. olympic team uniforms but it is a good segue to the notion of unions and the power of labor in the u.s. we know now in 1983, there was a 20.1% membership in unions across the country. 2011, that s dropped in half basically to 11.8%. only one in 12 of those age 16 to 34 are in a union. tell us about that decline in
millionaires pay a 30% federal tax rate. fact or fiction? that s a fact. as millionaires defined by how much you make every year, actually it would kick in for people making a million dollar as year or more and the full 30% rate would apply to people making $2 million a year or more. that s the basics of the buffett rule. we re off the number one with the fact there. next, most american moyillionais do not pay as high a tax rate as other americans? that s a fiction. most of them do. most middle income people pay somewhere between 15 and 20%. effective tax rate. effective tax rate means after you filled out all your forms, taken all your deductions and your benefits, the effective tax rate, the grand total you made versus what percentage you pay. most middle income people are in the 15% to 20% range. the president you just mentioned is at 20.1%. mitt romney at about 15%. most rich people, though, aren t like mitt romney. because most rich people don t make most of their income in