He used to be a bishop - I would be shocked if he hadn’t tithed. I know a good number of Mormons here, and they all seem to do it, best I can tell.
But he has never run against Democrats for president, only other Republicans. The interesting thing here is that this is coming up during the primaries, which I never expected.
Thanks to OWS, income inequality is now a bigger concern of the public than immigration, and I doubt too many voters are for it. Romney is making himself a poster child for the cluelessness of the rich right. Remember all the rightwingers who moaned and groaned about how raising the tax rate on the rich would make them not want to work. It is going to be hard to sell how raising tax rates from 15% to what the average guy pays is going to cause problems. This is the number everyone will remember when searching for tax rate for the rich internally.
Marketplace yesterday noted that equity fund managers now are really pissed at Romney. There income is considered as investment income and taxed at the capital gain rate, and there was a move to wipe out this loophole a while ago. Romney’s income from Bain is taxed this way, so it is in the news again, where these greedy bastards don’t want it. I hope legislation to eliminate this loophole gets introduced and Republicans are forced to vote for Romney’s loophole.
And Romney hasn’t really worked (other than running for office) for several years. Isn’t he the one who quipped last year about being among the long term unemployed?
Except for the speaking gigs that gave him six-figure income on their own.
Yes. Gosh, that was charming.
Yeah, but that’s “not much”. 
Couldn’t come at a better time, what with so many people pissed at Obama for shutting down the intertubes.
Yeah I know but I’m not sure that a 501(c)(3) religious organization can donate to a SuperPAC.
There was legislation proposed to close this loophole back when the Democarats controlled the house and had an almost filibusterproof majority in the senate. It was killed I believe by Chuck Schumer (who might have also been the senator who proposed the legislation) when he was informed by his hedge fund donors that it would affect them, perhaps make them all move to the Cayman Islands or some bullshit like that.
You remember the Clintonista reform of Dem leadership? Make the Democrats more “business friendly”? They won.
Yeah, Kerry’s wife got a low tax rate by having over half of her income be from tax-exempt municipal bonds. It’s possible that Romney has some of that going for him too.
Kerry himself paid something like 23% from what I can find, on $395k.
Yeah and if was running as a tax cutting Republican this year, it would hurt him too.
I don’t recall Kerry’s taxes being a topic of much discussion, but he was definitely seen as an out-of-touch rich guy based on the number of houses he and his wife owned, the ski trips, and so on and so on.
Yeah, especially next to a down-to-Earth, working class guy like GeeDubya…
Can I get a part time job that pays that well? It would motivate me to work…and I’d create jobs because I’d hire someone to mow my lawn, clean my house, and finish my basement.
Ohh ohh! Hire me!
I’ll be happy to mow your basement.
And they say there are plenty of jobs for qualified applicants, the issue is lack of good people.
Whose “real world” experience was owning a professional sports team. You know you’re out of touch with the average person when even your employees are millionaires.
I could be wrong, but I suspect his tithing can only help Republicans, especially if some Dems are foolish enough to try to turn it into an issue. In the same respect that only you get to be a jerk to your brother and everyone else better back off, an attack on someone tithing to their church, especially if made by a Godless Liberal ™, would only serve to circle the wagons.
How common is tithing, though? I’m seriously asking - as a life-long atheist, I have no idea if tithing is considered to be ordinary or weird. Catholics tithe as well, right? Is it common in the Protestant denominations?
Catholics do generally contribute to their church, but it’s not usually 10%. The guidelines I’ve seen have generally been along the lines of “an hour’s wage each week”.