Thursday, January 19, 2012
SPARTANBURG, S.C. (AP)
Mitt Romney tried doggedly Wednesday to sidestep the political furor he had started a day earlier by revealing he pays federal taxes at a rate of about 15 percent, less than millions of middle-income American families.
Facing a new controversy, his campaign confirmed that Romney has money invested in the Cayman Islands but said he was not getting any tax break.
Newt Gingrich, his main rival in this weekend's South Carolina primary, poked at Romney anew and disclosed that his personal tax rate is more than double that of Romney.
Just before Saturday's South Carolina voting, Romney is trying to wrap up his push for the Republican nomination, but it's been anything but smooth. He's spent nearly two weeks answering questions and criticism about his personal wealth and tenure at Bain Capital, the private equity firm he founded, and those subjects are sure to come up again in Thursday night's debate.
Gingrich slapped at the GOP front-runner, saying in Winnsboro that he himself paid 31 percent of his income in taxes for 2010, more than twice what Romney said he paid. Gingrich's campaign said the 31 percent was the effective federal rate on income, apparently not including Social Security payroll taxes.
Gingrich told reporters that he is not criticizing Romney for paying a tax rate below what many wage-earning Americans pay. Gingrich has proposed a plan that would give Americans the option of paying a 15 percent flat tax - which he notes is the same rate Romney is citing.
"My goal is not to raise Mitt Romney's taxes but to let everyone pay Romney's rate," Gingrich said.