During last nights GOP debate in South Carolina, all five of the remaining candidates were asked what they thought the tax rate should be in the United States. The man most likely to be the Republican nominee, Mitt Romney, said, “I would like 25 percent, but right now it’s at 35, so people better pay what is legally required.” Romney must not be counting himself as a person, since this morning Millionaire Mitt, in response to a reporter’s question, said, “What’s the effective rate I’ve been paying? It’s probably closer to the 15 percent rate than anything.” People better pay what is legally required…except for Mitt apparently.

Yes, there are vast differences in our tax code between money earned from actual work, and money earned from money. And yes, Romney did pay what was legally required of him, what’s required of him just happens to be a lot less than what is required from the rest of us. That’s not only unfair, but it borders on the grotesque when a man who is running to be the leader of the free world, is the embodiment of American inequality.

The nonpartisan Congressional Research Service has recently found that investment income (the way Millionaire Mitt makes his money) was the biggest contributor to an increase in income inequality in the United States from 1996-2006. This doesn’t mean that Mitt Romney is some evil man, or that people should engage in the “politics of envy”, and not vote for Romney because he’s rich. It does mean that nothing trickles down, except inequality, when the 1% do well. There is a myth in American politics, perpetuated by the Republican Party, that if we lower capital gains and corporate tax rates, businesses will start hiring, the economy will start booming, and the rising tide of the free market will lift all boats. The reality is closer to a rising tide caused by one yacht speeding recklessly by a bunch of tiny rowboats…sure the rowboats crest at the top of the wave for a second, but then they’re quickly driven lower than before, with some going completely under in the yachts wake. Enforcing a speed limit on the yacht doesn’t stop it from going from point a to point b, but it does stop the hard-working rowboats from being drowned. Taxing corporations and investment income fairly won’t stall our economy any more than a speed limit stalls a yacht, but it could actually lower our national debt, restore our triple A credit rating, and not leave us with a nasty taste in our mouth when looking at the personal finances of a candidate for president.

Mitt Romney wants to keep the 15% tax rate on investment income in place, and also thinks that issues of tax policy should only be discussed in “quiet rooms”. Now we know why.

Sarah Warden is the author of the novel Three Fifths of Love, available for the Kindle from Amazon http://www.amazon.com/Three-Fifths-Love-Marriage-ebook/dp/B005EZ3QU2/ref=sr_1_1?ie=UTF8&qid=1318174116&sr=8-1

Image of Mitt Romney is by Matthew Reichbach (Flickr: Mitt Romney Steve Pearce event 056) [CC-BY-2.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by/2.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Wealth distribution chart image by User:RoyBoy. [CC-BY-SA-3.0 (www.creativecommons.org/licenses/by-sa/3.0)], via Wikimedia Commons. Use of these images does not imply any endorsement of the views expressed in this article.