WASHINGTON -- Democratic vice presidential nominee Sen. Joe Biden released 10 years of tax returns Friday, in what his campaign said was in part an attempt to pressure his Republican counterpart, Sarah Palin, to do the same.
The returns, posted on running mate Sen. Barack Obama's campaign Web site for the tax years from 1998 through 2007, offered few surprises about the finances of the Delaware senator. Sen. Biden, in his sixth term, has long been viewed as a man of relatively modest means in a governmental body studded with millionaires.
The Bidens' joint gross income hovered between $215,000 and $320,000 a year during this period, and their tax rates, between 16% and 20% of total income, the records showed. They claimed very little investment income. Their biggest deduction was for mortgage interest on their Wilmington, Del., home. That interest totaled $38,000 in 2007.
The returns, posted on running mate Sen. Barack Obama's campaign Web site for the tax years from 1998 through 2007, offered few surprises about the finances of the Delaware senator. Sen. Biden, in his sixth term, has long been viewed as a man of relatively modest means in a governmental body studded with millionaires.
The Bidens' joint gross income hovered between $215,000 and $320,000 a year during this period, and their tax rates, between 16% and 20% of total income, the records showed. They claimed very little investment income. Their biggest deduction was for mortgage interest on their Wilmington, Del., home. That interest totaled $38,000 in 2007.
The amount they gave to charity during this period never exceeded one-half of 1% of their annual income. The Bidens never gave more than $995 to charity in any of the tax years, and usually gave much less.
Since 1975 Americans have given between 1.6 percent and 2.16 percent of their income to charitable concerns. - McKay
5 comments:
i think many people need to reconsider charity and think about how good it will do and the positive output they could get from it
This just goes to show you that all politicians are equal. No matter what they tell the world. An interesting side note was a couple of years ago congress voted to give themselves a pay raise. The president could never get away with that, perhaps checks and balances have some advantages. Or not.
Whether they say they will change any taxes or not it is just to recieve votes
Any politician's attempts to look good - and make the opposing side look bad - usually backfire. This is just another example of that.
Being in the public eye and all, it seems that Senator Biden would want to give much more to charity than the average American to make himself look good. But, i guess he is too busy trying to bring his running mate down to worry about his own image.
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