Saturday, February 27, 2016


2/27/16

Rubio Tax Returns

Marco Rubio released summaries of his last five years of tax filings on Saturday, revealing him to be a candidate with a senator's steady annual income of $176,000 who reaped repeated windfalls from book deals. During his first four years in the Senate, Rubio and his wife Jeanette together earned an average of $531,000 a year.
Since winning election to an office in Washington, Rubio's income has ranged from $276,059 to $938,963, and he has paid between $46,500 and $254,894 in federal income tax. Most of the income came from a business that collected royalties on two books, based on a comparison with personal Senate financial disclosures.
In 2012, his most lucrative year, his effective tax rate topped out at a little more than 31 percent.
The documents Rubio has released are not complete tax filings, as Mitt Romney provided in 2012 and Hillary Clinton produced last year. Instead, Rubio released the first two pages of his 1040 form, which summarizes the details of his income and taxes.
Rubio's release of his most recent tax returns comes after Republican front-runner Donald Trump said in Thursday's GOP debate that his tax returns have been the subject of audits for at least a dozen consecutive years. He said he would not release them until that process concludes.
"We're putting these out today to put pressure on Trump and the other candidates to release theirs," said Rubio campaign spokesman Alex Conant. "To the extent there are additional questions about Marco, we won't rule out providing more information in the future."

Friday, February 12, 2016

Hillary Clinton Is The Ultimate 'No' Woman
              In Thursday night's Democratic debate, Hillary Clinton again found herself questioning how Sen. Bernie Sanders (I-Vt.) would really turn his big ideas into realities should he get elected president. She has done this time and time again. Free college sounds great, but how would he get GOP governors to cooperate? Single-payer health care is popular with progressives, but how would he get Republicans in Congress to go along with it after the nasty Obamacare fight? This is essentially the same position Clinton found herself in in 2008, when she ran against another guy with big ideas who argued the right person could change politics. 
   
             Clinton likely came to Washington with far more idealism than she now displays. But her experience with the political machine has worn her down -- particularly the bruising health care battle she had in the 1990s. In those days, Clinton was known as the liberal in her husband's White House and often pushed top officials to be more progressive.


This chart combines the latest opinion polls and is updated whenever a new poll is released.
March2015AprilMayJuneJulyAug.Sept.Oct.Nov.Dec.Jan.2016Feb.020406080100

Pollster Trend

  •   Hillary Clinton59.0%
  •   Bernie Sanders34.8%
  •   Joe Biden
  •   Lincoln Chafee
  •   Lawrence Lessig
  •   Martin O'Malley
  •   Jim Webb
  •   Undecided