i m sure there is absolutely nothing that he s done that is improper. i m sure he s paid all the taxes. you ve got to fully disclose. he ought to have disclosed it before he started the race. i ve had lots of candidates that have been millionaires and billionaires. at the end of the day if they find out you re paying your taxes that is okay. he better have someone on his staff not look at it from an accounting perspective but a political perspective. what does this mean and how are they going to come at us. he cannot be evasive. he has to be forthcoming. martha: he should have had a great answer ready. he should have said, 15%, and i tell you why we should have a flat tax, tax reform is essential. in terms of speaker fees it s not how much money you have, people don t care if a president is wealthy, many presidents have been wealthy. he said it s whether or not you
rate than many middle class americans? then he casually says the money he gets from speakers fees is not very much. but according to his own financial disclosure forms, mitt romney made $374,327 in speaker fees in one year. that ain t bad on the rubber chicken circuit, folks. that is what mr. out of touch thinks is not very much? no it s real good. the median household income in american is just $49,445. so you tell me, is he in touch? romney s speaking fees were more than seven times the median household income in this country? today, newt gingrich had fun with romney s tax rate. he ought to release taxes and find out whether or not it was really 15% and second, i think that we ought to rename our flat tax. we have a 15% flat tax, this will be the mitt romney flat tax that all americans could then pay the rate romney paid, that
that all americans could then pay the rate romney paid, that is terrific. let s turn to bob, professor at new york university great to have you with us tonight. romney and his 15% tax rate, you know, there are wealthy people out there that say hey, that is the law, we ll work the system the best we can, this is the way you manage your money in contemporary times, but the disconnect and then the comment about the $374,000 in speaker fees as not being very much, how is this going to play? this is what you want your candidate to do in front of the public in front of the cameras? it sure isn t, but it s what i want their candidate to do. look, this guy is out of touch. not just the $374,000, this is a guy who says he likes firing people, tries to make a $10,000 bet. i ll bet when he finally releases these tax returns and you know it took him 180 words in the debate the other night to
pay the rate romney paid, that is terrific. let s turn to bob, professor at new york university great to have you with us tonight. romney and his 15% tax rate, you know, there are wealthy people out there that say hey, that is the law, we ll work the system the best we can, this is the way you manage your money in contemporary times, but the disconnect and then the comment about the $374,000 in speaker fees as not being very much, how is this going to play? this is what you want your candidate to do in front of the public in front of the cameras? it sure isn t, but it s what i want their candidate to do. look, this guy is out of touch. not just the $374,000, this is a guy who says he likes firing people, tries to make a $10,000 bet. i ll bet when he finally releases these tax returns and you know it took him 180 words in the debate the other night to
romney seemed a little rattled. it was clear in my mind he was uncomfortable answering it. will he end up releasing those tax returns by april and what will he end up releasing, one year, five year, ten years worth. we know this guy has cash. come on. and i get speaker fees from time to time, not very much. not very much, that not very much amounted to about $349,000 a year. he just showed the old romney we ve seen time and time again. he s the total 1% package. if you don t run chris christie, romney will be the nominee. today, democrats announced that president obama s convention speech in charlotte, north carolina, on september 6th has been upgraded from the time warner cable arena to the 74,000-seat bank of america stadium. this will be the president s