Last night, CBS’ 60 Minutes premiered two interviews with the 2012 presidential candidates, Democratic incumbent Barack Obama and Republican Mitt Romney.
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Mitt, a multi-millionaire businessman, defended paying an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent on the millions that he made last year. He’s been in the hot seat for paying such a low rates compared to average Americans, and refusing to release any of his tax returns prior to 2010.
CBS’ Scott Pelley pressed Romney about his low tax rate during the interview Sunday night.
“Now you made, on your investments, personally, about $20 million last year. And you paid 14 percent in federal taxes. That’s the capital gains rate. Is that fair to the guy who makes $50,000 and paid a higher rate than you did?”
Mitt responded:
“It is a low rate. And one of the reasons why the capital gains tax rate is lower is because capital has already been taxed once at the corporate level, as high as 35 percent.”
Romney also defended his slumping poll numbers, declaring his campaign “doesn’t need a turnaround.”
60 Minutes also caught up with President Obama, asking him questions about his first term in office, including his tax cuts and the bank regulations that he implemented.
“I’ve cut taxes for middle class families by an average of $3,600 per typical family. When it comes to regulations, I’ve issued fewer regulations than my predecessor, George Bush, did during that same period in office.”
Obama continued:
“Now, I don’t make any apologies for putting in place regulations to make sure banks don’t make reckless bets and then expect taxpayers to bail them out. I don’t make any apologies for regulating insurance companies, so that they can’t drop a family’s coverage, just when somebody in their family needs it most.”
Take a look at Romney and Obama’s interviews in the videos above.
SOURCE: UPI.com
