Not Qualified To Be President

“He has been clear that no American need pay more than he or she owes under the law. At the same time, he was in the unique position of having made a commitment to the public that his tax rate would be above 13%. In order to be consistent with that statement, the Romneys limited their deduction of charitable contributions.”

• Source: Buzzfeed
• Context: In July of 2012, Romney stated that  that he doesn’t “pay more [taxes] 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.” In August, he also stated that he had never paid taxes below 13% in the past 10 years amidst accusations that he possibly paid no taxes at all. However, upon release of his 2011 tax returns, it was evident that Romney manipulated his deductions in order to pay a higher tax rate than he would have, 14.1%. Had he taken his full deduction, he would have been below 13%. When asked about this, his campaign responded by admitting that they he had not claimed his full deductions in order to stay consistent with his statement in August. By Romney’s own standards, because he paid more than he had to, he is not qualified to be president. As Bloomberg has pointed out, Romney has three years to amend his tax returns and reclaim the deductions, which he will most likely do after the election.