"And if I win, I'll have this much more money!" (Scott Audette/Reuters)
If Mitt Romney wins the presidential election and his tax policies are put in place instead of the ones favored by President Obama,
he could "earn" $100 million over the next twenty years:
To see where the presidential candidates stand on taxing the rich, just look at how they'd tax themselves. Under his own proposal, Mitt Romney would pay half what he would under President Barack Obama's tax plan. For a man of Romney's means, that could save almost $5 million a year.
For Obama, not as loaded as Romney but still well-off, losing re-election could provide a tax windfall. He'd save as much as $90,000 a year if Romney's plan were enacted rather than his own tax-the-rich vision.
Two nonprofit research groups, the liberal-leaning Citizens for Tax Justice and conservative-leaning Tax Foundation, did the calculations, based on the most recent completed tax returns released by the candidates. Compared with what they owed in April, both men would be dinged in 2013 under Obama's proposal, along with other wealthy taxpayers. They could expect savings under Romney, depending on which tax breaks the former Massachusetts governor decides to oppose.
Obviously, Romney is not purely motivated by financial considerations, but the financial windfall he'd reap by winning the election is staggering—and it certainly explains why he's had so little trouble raising enormous sums through his Super PAC network.
