Elephants February 8, 2012March 27, 2017 CORRECTION Matt Ball: “You wrote . . . ‘If Romney were smart, he’d say, “It’s crazy that people like me pay such a low tax rate. I have the expertise – and the Street cred – to fix that. And if you elect me, I will.” Instead, he defends the status quo . . . that his lobbyists helped create.’ Actually, Mr. Romney’s policy would give him and his fellow multi-millionaires a very large additional tax cut – on top of the budget-busting Bush tax cut.” ☞ There I go again understating the case against Republicans. Matt is absolutely right. According to the Christian Science Monitor, “[Under] Romney’s tax, high-income households would win big and poor families would actually fare worse.” ELEPHANTS If you like this 90-second elephantine address, send it to your list. STATE TAX BURDEN BY INCOME LEVEL Scroll down to the table see how progressive or regressive your state is. In Florida, the poorest 20% pay 17.6% of their income in local taxes; the top 1% pay 2.6%. In New York, it’s 9.6% versus 7.2%. INNUMERACY – II Bill Merkel: “I just finished reading Malcolm Gladwell’s Outliers, and today’s column made me think of the chapter called Rice Paddies and Math Tests. If you haven’t read it, here’s an excerpt. Fascinating stuff, as usual, from Gladwell.”