Champion of zygotes Rick Santorum released four of his tax returns today because he thought lots of people really cared about them. Maggie Haberman of Politico has the scoop and they reveal that, when compared to Mitt Romney, Rick is in the poor house but compared to the rest of us, he's doing all right for himself:
Santorum and his wife Karen filed joint returns for all four years. As you'll see from the returns, the Santorums' adjusted gross income went from about $659,000 in 2007, his first year out of the Senate, to $952,000 in 2008, to $1.1 million in 2009 and about $923,000 in 2010. They paid about $167,000 in taxes in 2007, about $262,000 in 2008, $310,000 in 2009, and $263,000 in 2010. There is depreciation on a condo property over the various years. The Santorums' charitable giving was a small percentage of his income each year.
What about those charitable contributions, you ask? Jennifer Rubin from the Washington Post tells us:
In no year was charitable giving more than 3 percent of his income, and he dipped below 2 percent in one year. He apparently believes in church doctrine about contraception but not about tithing. Compared to the American people as a whole (who give about 2 percent on average), his level of giving is not unusual. But for people in his income bracket, he’s frankly cheap when it comes to charity. Last October the New York Times reported that “the wealthiest Americans — those making over $500,000 annually, which is less than 1 percent of all tax filers — gave away 3.4 percent of their income in 2008. That is significantly higher than Americans at lower income levels.” But not the Santorums. Recall that in the years for which the Romneys released their tax returns or estimates they gave away about 16 percent of their income.
Cafeteria Catholic or is Rick just aware of the questionable oversight?
