Jim Lehrer parody… Lehrer has defended his approach today. Of course, the debate format incentivizes particular behaviors for both men and their teams. Eyewitnesses tell their stories all over the web.  What is yours?

Presumptive Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney on Friday said that President Barack Obama’s call to hire more police, firefighters and teachers proved that he didn’t “get the message” from Republican wins in the recent Wisconsin recall elections. During a press conference earlier on Friday, Obama had called on Congress to pass a jobs proposal that would prevent layoffs and […]

Here’s an exchange between Tim Worstall and me in the comments to my post below titled “Spain. Please,Mr. Obama, talk about Spain. Please.”: WORSTALL: If you’re going to comment on the Spanish economy might help if you knew something about it. The big three banks, the equivalent of the Wall Street ones? They’re just fine.  […]

ROMNEY: Look, the revenue I get is by more people working, getting higher pay, paying more taxes. That’s how we get growth and how we balance the budget. But the idea of taxing people more, putting more people out of work, you’ll never get there. You’ll never balance the budget by raising taxes. Spain — […]

by Kenneth Thomas Romney Tax Plan as Budget Busting as Ever Seriously, I could just re-post my February 27th post word for word tonight and it would be just as true as it was then. The Romney tax plan blows a $5 trillion hole in the budget via tax reductions and he still hasn’t told […]

Yup. All those farmers in Iowa and Nebraska who’ve been waiting for the Farm Bill to pass are as nervous tonight as Richard Nixo … er … Mitt Romney was this evening during the debate, but their problem is different than his was.  Instead of babbling incoherently while wearing a frozen, glassy-eyed smile, the farmers […]

by Kenneth Thomas Mitt Romney’s Unintentionally Hilarious Tax Return FAQ Unless you’ve been in a coma, you have certainly heard about Mitt Romney’s release of his 2011 tax returns last Friday. You no doubt know that he and his wife did not claim all the charitable tax deductions they were due, so their tax rate […]

Romney’s plan to find a cure for cancer: A bullet point saying “I’ll find a cure for cancer.” Voila!  Elect Romney. 

I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires. — Mitt Romney, speaking to ABC’s David Muir, July […]

Between 1990 and 2009, the Romneys’ average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.2 percent, according to [notarized tax return summaries by Romney trustee Brad] Malt. The lowest effective federal personal tax rate they paid in that period was 13.66 percent, he said. Over the same 20-year period, the couple gave an average of 13.45 […]