Santorum's tax returns show steady rise in wealth

[highplainsdem]

http://www.sfgate.com/cgi-bin/article.cgi?f=/n/a/2012/02/15/national/w185054S58.DTL

Republican presidential candidate Rick Santorum is releasing four years' worth of federal income tax returns showing a steady rise in his personal wealth between 2007 and 2010.

Santorum's returns show his federal income taxes rose from 2007, when he paid $167,000, to $310,000 in 2009, then dropped to $263,000 in 2010. During that same period, his annual income surged from nearly $660,000 in 2007 to $1.1 million in 2009 before slipping to $923,000 in 2010.

Santorum has sold himself as a Washington outsider and social conservative. After he lost a bid for re-election as a senator from Pennsylvania in 2006, he became a millionaire by capitalizing on his D.C. political connections, working as a corporate consultant and media commentator.

-snip-

The returns were released to Politico. The blog post about it, which has four links to the returns, is at

http://www.politico.com/blogs/burns-haberman/2012/02/exclusive-santorum-releases-four-years-of-taxes-114653.html

Rick Santorum said they would come this week, and here are four years worth of his taxes, from years 2007 through 2010.

They can be found here, here, here and here. The returns are the most in number that have been released by any of the major GOP contenders - Newt Gingrich and Mitt Romney didn't release several years' worth.

Santorum and his wife Karen filed joint returns for all four years. As you'll see from the returns, the Santorums' adjusted gross income went from about $659,000 in 2007, his first year out of the Senate, to $952,000 in 2008, to $1.1 million in 2009 and about $923,000 in 2010.

They paid about $167,000 in taxes in 2007, about $262,000 in 2008, $310,000 in 2009, and $263,000 in 2010.

-snip-

Politico also notes that "the Santorums' charitable giving was a small percentage of his income each year."

I haven't looked at the returns yet, but according to comments on the blog, his charitable giving was less than 2% of his income over those four years.

[noel711]

1. So this religious zealot doesn't follow biblical precedent...

and tithe 10% of his income?

Just a measly 2% for Jesus?

What the hell is wrong with you Santorum?

[PSPS]

2. The top 0.5%

[FarLeftFist]

3. Obama should use this against him when talking about the economy. Seems he did pretty well.

[Neue Regel]

7. Use it against him how, exactly?

http://www.whitehouse.gov/sites/default/files/president-obama-2010-complete-return.pdf

Mr. & Mrs. Obama's Adjusted Gross Income for 2010 was $5,623,690, or about 6 times more than Santorum's $923,000. Granted, Romney has them both beat by a large margin, but none of the major presidential candidates can claim to understand how the average American lives.

[SDjack]

4. Santorum earned his money

fair and square, in beds on K St., WDC.

[russspeakeasy]

5. He should be on his knees; ........he probably was.

[pkdu]

6. In 2007 he claims a $4068 "fair market value" donation to Salvation Army donation - what the hell

did that cover ?????

[elleng]

8. a car?

[jmowreader]

12. Either that, or his family moved and donated everything they didn't want to take with them

[xtraxritical]

15. Probably an automobile, it happens many times every day sir. eom

[Rosa Luxemburg]

9. where did he get his money from?

http://santorumexposed.com/serendipity/archives/119-Abramoff-and-Santorum.html

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/K_Street_Project

[crunch60]

10. Santorum Named One Of Three “Most Corrupt” Senators In 2006

snip,,

In February of 2006, CREW had filed an ethics complaint Charging that “ethical trespasses have become the norm for Sen. Santorum,” CREW’s Melanie Sloan cited Santorum’s “contempt for the rules” as “particularly ironic given that Sen. Santorum has long attempted to position himself as the poster child for public morality.”



http://thenewcivilrightsmovement.com/santorum-named-one-of-three-most-corrupt-senators-in-2006/politics/2012/01/07/32863

[Rosa Luxemburg]

20. We know they are hypocrites so what can we do about them

[bayareaboy]

11. Thank You Rosa

I smelled a lobbyist in that sweater vest.

Could Grover be doing this to shake up Mitt, and make sure he knows who controls things?

[jmowreader]

13. The really frustrating thing about both Santorum and Gingrich...

is they're selling themselves as "Washington Outsiders," and being accepted as such by the teabaggers and fundies, when they are about as "inside" as it's possible to get.

[HangOnKids]

17. It's Like A Turd Claiming It Didn't Come from An Asshole

"I'm outside! I'm outside!"

[hfojvt]

14. the headline appears to be deceptive or confused

The article talks about a rise in INCOME, yet the headline says WEALTH.

The two are often conflated, or confused. We say rich or wealthy when we mean high INCOME rather than high WEALTH. The two are often connected, with high income people able to accumulate more wealth, and with wealthy people able to generate high incomes off of their wealth, but they are not always the same, as Allan Iverson's financial troubles show. He made massive amounts of income, and now he is broke. Mike Tyson, Elton John, Michael Jackson. The media is full of stories about people who made/make lots of money but still have financial troubles. Harder to find stories of people who once had $50 million in wealth but are now broke, but such things may happen.

Either way, a million in income is not the same as a million in wealth.

[harun]

16. So glad to see someone paying attention!

It gives me hope to see that I am not the only one who notices this and see's why it is they muddle the two together and the problem with doing so.

Bravo, hfojvt!

[Kellerfeller]

19. Not only that

It says a "steady rise".

If it is a steady rise, it doesn't go up and then down.

[unionworks]

18. Better start paying LOTS of attention

...to this scumball. Pay attention to his connections to the "we don't hear about him anymore" Erik Prince of Blackwater. If Santorum wins Prince gets the keys to the kingdom.

[unkachuck]

22. "...income went from nearly $660,000 in 2007 to $1.1 million in 2009..."

....just your average, typical, working-mans' millionaire, looking for the blue-collar vote....