24 Facts That Show How Ridiculously Unfair Our Economy Is For Americans Under The Age Of 30 -

24 Facts That Show How Ridiculously Unfair Our Economy Is For Americans Under The Age Of 30 - 






If you are an American under the age of 30, you have probably figured out by now that the entire economic system is stacked against you.  The way that our economy is structured today is ridiculously unfair to younger Americans.  First, we endlessly push our young people to go to our ridiculously expensive colleges and universities where the pile up enormous amounts of debt.  Then they get out into the real world where they find that only a handful of really good jobs are available for the vast army of college graduates entering the workforce.  Sadly, most of the jobs that our young people are working these days do not pay enough to be able to support a family or buy a decent home.  Meanwhile, our politicians are busy mortgaging their future.  Our young people are expected to support a Social Security system that will not be there when they get older, and every single day more than 2 billion dollars is added to a debt that will hang around the necks of younger Americans and their children for the rest of their lives.  If you stop and think about all of this for too long, your head might just explode with anger.  Well, not literally, but you get the point.  The truth is that this is going to be the first generation in U.S. history that is going to do significantly worse than their parents, and that is a terrible shame.


Are you not convinced that things are really bad for younger Americans?


Do you think that they should just shut up and quit whining about things?


Well, keep reading.  You just might change your mind by the time this article is over.


The following are 24 facts that show how ridiculously unfair our economy is for Americans under the age of 30 that will make your head explode....


#1 U.S. households led by someone 65 years of age or older are 47 times wealthier than U.S. households led by someone 35 years of age or younger.


#2 Today, only about 55 percent of all Americans between the ages of 16 and 29 have a job.


#3 Back in the year 2000, more than 50 percent of all Americans teens had a job.  This past summer, only 29.6% of all American teens had a job.


#4 Since the year 2000, incomes for U.S. households led by someone between the ages of 25 and 34 have fallen by about 12 percent after you adjust for inflation.


#5 It is absolutely ridiculous how much it costs to get a college education in America today.  After adjusting for inflation, U.S. college students are now borrowing about twice as much money as they did a decade ago.


#6 Average yearly tuition at private colleges and universities in the United States is now up to $27,293.  That figure has increased by 29% in just the past five years.


#7 Back in 1952, a full year of tuition at Harvard was only $600. Today, it is $35,568.


#8 The cost of college textbooks has tripled over the past decade.


#9 In 2010, the average college graduate had accumulated approximately $25,000 in student loan debt by graduation day.


#10 At some point this year, total student loan debt in the United States will surpass the 1 trillion dollar mark for the first time ever.


#11 The total amount of student loan debt in the United States now exceeds the total amount of credit card debt in the United States.


#12 Our economy is not producing nearly enough jobs for our college graduates.  The percentage of mail carriers with a college degree is now 4 times higher than it was back in 1970.


#13 One-third of all college graduates end up taking jobs that don't even require college degrees.


#14 In the United States today, there are more than 100,000 janitors that have college degrees.


#15 In the United States today, 317,000 waiters and waitresses have college degrees.


#16 Right now, there are 5.9 million Americans between the ages of 25 and 34 that are living with their parents.  According to recent Census data, men are almost twice as likely to live with their parents as women are.


#17 At this point, there are more than 3.5 million Americans that are behind on their mortgage payments.  Young people that were offered "teaser rates" on their first homes before the housing collapse represent a large proportion of these mortgages.


CNN recently featured the story of 29-year-old Ginny Gant....


I followed "the plan" to achieve the American dream and now I feel like I'm caught in a stagnant nightmare.


My husband now works for the Navy as a civilian and I am a high school teacher. We bought our two-bedroom townhouse nearly at the peak of the housing boom for $196,500. We're underwater on our mortgage with a high interest rate. I'm looking at having to stick with this house for eight, nine, 10 years.


I really would like to have two or three children, but I just don't think it's feasible to have that many children in this house. It's too small to have a family and it's not what I envisioned for myself when I followed the rules.


#18 The total value of household real estate in the U.S. has declined from $22.7 trillion in 2006 to $16.2 trillion today.  As noted above, large numbers of young Americans bought homes in the years leading up to the housing crash, and they lost a ton of wealth when home values plummeted.


#19 We are facing a retirement crisis that is absolutely unprecedented in U.S. history.  Right now, more than 10,000 Baby Boomers are turning 65 every single day.  Young Americans are expected to pay for their Social Security benefits, but Social Security will not be there when Americans under the age of 30 get older.


#20 Young Americans get arrested at a far higher rate than older Americans do.  Amazingly, 30% of all Americans get arrested by the time they reach the age of 23.  Once you spend time in prison, getting a good job becomes much tougher.


#21 Approximately one out of every five Americans under the age of 30 is currently living in poverty.


#22 In 2010, 42 percent of all single mothers in the United States were on food stamps.  A very large percentage of those single mothers are under the age of 30.


#23 According to one recent survey, only 14 percent of all Americans that are 28 or 29 years old are optimistic about their financial futures.


#24 The U.S. government is stealing about 150 million dollars from our children and our grandchildren every single hour.  Younger Americans will have to bear the burden of this debt far longer than older Americans will.


So what do you think about the plight of Americans that are under the age of 30?


Please feel free to leave a comment with your thoughts below....


Read more -
http://endoftheamericandream.com/archives/24-facts-about-how-unfair-our-economy-is-for-americans-under-the-age-of-30-that-will-make-your-head-explode

Obama to Use Pension Funds of Ordinary Americans to Pay for Bank Mortgage “Settlement”

Obama to Use Pension Funds of Ordinary Americans to Pay for Bank Mortgage “Settlement” - 




Obama’s latest housing market chicanery should come as no surprise. As we discuss below, he will use the State of the Union address to announce a mortgage “settlement” by Federal regulators, and at least some state attorneys general. It’s yet another gambit designed to generate a campaign talking point while making the underlying problem worse.


The president seems to labor under the misapprehension that crimes by members of the elite must be swept under the rug because prosecuting them would destablize the system. What he misses is that we are well past the point where coverups will work, and they may even blow up before the November elections. If nothing else, his settlement pact has a non-trivial Constitutional problem which the Republicans, if they are smart, will use to undermine the deal and discredit the Administration.


To add insult to injury, Obama is apparently going to present his belated Christmas present to the banking industry as a boon to ordinary citizens. He refused to appoint a real middle class advocate, Elizabeth Warren, to the Consumer Financial Protection Bureau, but he’s not above stealing her talking points.


We and other commentators have discussed how the mortgage settlement negotiations nominally led by Iowa attorney general Tom Miller had descended into farce. Almost nothing the Miller camp said was believable. They were presented as “attorney general” discussions when the Administration was pulling the strings. They’ve described a deal as weeks away for over a year. They kept claiming that they had undertaken investigations when not a single subpoena was issued by the AGs still involved in the negotiations. They’ve argued from the get go that a pact will be good for homeowners when the deal reached by under-resourced Nevada attorney general Catherine Cortez Masto with a single servicer, Saxon, resulted in a payout that is 10 to 20 times what the Administration is calling a victory. And that assumes that the banks will live up to their side of the deal when past settlements of servicing abuses have shown that they don’t.


The administration has finally woken up to the fact that the housing mess is almost certain to get worse before it gets better, and Obama must therefore be armed with better propaganda. The Miller-led talks have become a bit of an embarrassment and needed to be put out of their misery. So Team Obama and Federal banking regulators have agreed on terms and as we discussed last Friday, are upping the pressure on state attorneys general to fall into line. As reported by Shahien Nasiripour of the Financial Times:


Banks and government negotiators have cleared a big hurdle in efforts to resolve allegations of widespread mortgage-related misdeeds, agreeing on terms for a settlement that are being circulated to the 50 US states for approval, state officials and a bank representative say.


The proposed pact would potentially reduce mortgage balances and monthly payments by more than $25bn for distressed US homeowners…


State prosecutors have already received a set of documents detailing new mortgage servicing standards that the banks and the government negotiators have agreed to. The states were also being sent documents detailing other main components of the deal, such as the liability release for the banks, the so-called “menu” of options describing the various forms of aid to be given to borrowers, as well as the precise language of the so-called “most favoured nation” clause, which spells out how participating states in the deal would be eligible to receive more advantageous terms should a holdout state strike a more favourable deal on its own with the five targeted banks.


The story did not outline terms, but previous leaks have indicated that the bulk of the supposed settlement would come not in actual monies paid by the banks (the cash portion has been rumored at under $5 billion) but in credits given for mortgage modifications for principal modifications. There are numerous reasons why that stinks. The biggest is that servicers will be able to count modifying first mortgages that were securitized toward the total. Since one of the cardinal rules of finance is to use other people’s money rather than your own, this provision virtually guarantees that investor-owned mortgages will be the ones to be restructured. Why is this a bad idea? The banks are NOT required to write down the second mortgages that they have on their books. This reverses the contractual hierarchy that junior lienholders take losses before senior lenders. So this deal amounts to a transfer from pension funds and other fixed income investors to the banks, at the Administration’s instigation.


Read more -
http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/01/obama-to-give-banks-mortgage-get-out-of-jail-almost-free-card-pressures-state-attorneys-generals-to-capitulate.html

10 Ways a Car Dealership Hustles You -

10 Ways a Car Dealership Hustles You -



Click here to enlarge - http://www.theautoinsurance.com/10-ways-a-car-dealership-hustles-you

Ten Skirted Issues from President Obama's State of the Union address -

Ten Skirted Issues from President Obama's State of the Union address - 


I confess; I expected to be bored out of my mind listening to President Obama’s campaign - I mean, State of the Union - I mean campaign, speech. I kept hoping some truly earth shattering story would sneak in there beforehand, like say some discovery that Mitt Romney had been having an affair with Newt Gingrich’s ex-wife while he was creating jobs at Bain capital, and we could all focus on that instead.


It turned out that my pre-determination proved accurate. I wonder if the members of Congress felt the same sense of same déjà vu that I did, as they were bopping up and down and applauding. 


Obama's speech was a compilation of highlights from his past ones. One part optimism, two parts repetition equals one total uninspiring. Maybe it’s so boring, because it matters so little at this point. Taking away popularity polls, our national threshold for belief in hope or change has been trampled, not just because of Obama or Romney, but of the whole political apparatus that thrives on deflection of reality and posturing. We don’t have the same energy to expend listening to politicians, the endless spin that renders fact obsolete, responsibility absent, and true accomplishment, unnecessary.


We saw Optimistic Obama in his first address to Congress in 2009: “While our economy may be weakened and our confidence shaken; though we are living through difficult and uncertain times, tonight I want every American to know this: We will rebuild, we will recover, and the United States of America will emerge stronger than before.”


We got Presumptuous Obama in 2010: “As we stabilized the financial system, we also took steps to get our economy growing again, save as many jobs as possible, and help Americans who had become unemployed.”


We watched Philosophical Obama in 2011: “We are the first nation to be founded for the sake of an idea -– the idea that each of us deserves the chance to shape our own destiny.  That’s why centuries of pioneers and immigrants have risked everything to come here… The future is ours to win.”


Now, we had Campaigning on Fairness Obama. He returned to the roots of his pre-Presidential words, having accomplished little to attain the goal that his words implied. Here are ten things that President Obama skirted: 


1) The cost of healthcare insurance. Obama tried to play both sides, slapping a populace spin on an insurance industry gift. “That’s why our health care law relies on a reformed private market, not a Government program.” He claimed he won’t “go back” on things like health insurance companies being able to cancel policies. He didn’t say that insurance premiums have already risen 22% in the past two years. Republicans hate Obama’s ‘signature’ healthcare reform bill because it unconstitutionally forces people to purchase insurance. Democrats support the bill because Obama passed it. The reality is – by the time it takes effect in 2014, premium costs may have doubled. Frame it however you want, that means health insurance could cost twice as much when this bill takes effect as it did before it was passed. Meanwhile, there are more people without insurance (because they can’t afford it) even though insurance companies can’t cancel policies or deny insurance for pre-existing conditions. This bill merely offers insurance companies a wider pool of customers, with a few restrictions on how much they can pillage them.


2) Student Loan Defaults. Obama claimed he wants to cap interest rates on student loans - which would be great, but can only work in this particularly low rate environment. He urged  colleges to keep costs down – again, something that’s worked out really well when he’s mentioned it before. This year, student loan debt surpassed credit card debt, breaching the $1 trillion mark, at an average of more than $25,000 per student (and up 47% over a decade ago, not all under Obama, but a bi-administration problem is still a problem). Not surprisingly, student loan defaults rates have risen alongside this debt increase. Nearly 9% of loans defaulted in 2010, of those that began repayment in 2009, vs. 7% that began in 2008.) Obama didn’t mention this growing problem. 


3) Youth unemployment. Obama took credit for the creation of 3 million jobs (I’m not going to debate that here). Regardless, youth unemployment is at its highest rate since 1948. The unemployment rate for those under age 25 is 18.1%, (31% for blacks) havin risen sharply since 2008. Do the math. High student loan debt + diminishing  job prospects =  bad ending. Work-study programs have to be intense to really alter that.


4) Big banks. The largest firms continue to grow their asset bases and fee extrapolation strategies from their captive customer base (If you’re say, a JPM Chase customer, it costs you $5 to extract your own money from a Bank of America ATM – both banks get a cut). It was Obama that re-confirmed Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke for another fourteen years (and yes, a bi-partisan Congress agreed), and who still keeps Treasury Secretary, Tim Geithner around. Both men were gung-ho about the merger mania that dotted Wall Street in the fall of 2008 and making the ‘too-big-to-fail” banks bigger, as they now are.


5) Small banks. President Obama didn’t address the smaller bank closings occurring because the big banks got disproportionate subsides;, 389 smaller banks (with $297 billion in assets) failed from 2009 to 2011. Like during the early years of the Great Depression, this means less choice for individuals, less loans for local businesses, and consolidation of influence and market share for the big banks – which comprise Obama’s largest bundling base.


6) Borrowers. Despite a few tepid programs to help homeowners, the sheer number of foreclosures is higher today than it was in 2008. There were a record number of foreclosure filings:  2.9 million in 2010 and 2.7 million in 2011.  These are predicted to rise in 2012 amidst default surges and more lender notices than in 2011. 


Why? Because Obama’s program (that was supposed to help 5 million borrowers, and helped half a million) had to be approved by the banks. Banks don’t like citizen aid programs, even if they screwed them to begin with by fueling a $14 trillion toxic asset pyramid repackaging risky (for people), high interest-bearing (for them). Obama said, “The banks will repay a deficit of trust”? What?! When?! Where?!


7) Recent regulator incompetence. Regulators looked the other way, Obama said, pre-crisis. But he mentioned nothing about the regulators giving a pass since; the SEC bestows banks settlements for fraudulent mortgage asset products, without extracting any admission of wrongdoing. He missed saying anything about the lack of related DOJ criminal indictments. The top five banks agreed to pay $1.149 billion to the SEC to settle subprime-mortgage related fraud charges, with no admission of guilt or criminal indictments. (The SEC settlement of $285 million with Citigroup was rejected by Judge Rakoff in November, 2011 and is being re-negotiated.) And Obama wants to create a Financial Crimes Unit? What’s the SEC supposed to be doing? or the DOJ? or the FBI?


8) MF Global and customer money. On the same topic – the deficit of trust thing: Obama avoided any talk about his buddy, Jon Corzine or MF Global, the nation’s eight largest bankruptcy. He didn’t point out how diabolical it was to use and ‘lose’ customer funds that were supposed to have been kept separate from bad bets. He didn’t suggest having a solid separation between customer money and financial firm money - as in - don't have it at the same firm. He claimed to ‘we will not bailout you out again” and yet, we still are.


9) Banks hoarding. Obama neglected to mention the $1.6 trillion that banks are stashing at the Fed in the form of excess (and interest-bearing) reserves, which do nothing for the Main Street economy. Meanwhile, small business loans are at a 12-year low, having shrunk continuously since 2008.


10) Obama conveyed that we dodged a bullet with getting the banking system under control. He didn’t note the rising risk in the banking system: the largest four US banks (JPM Chase, Citibank, Bank of America and Goldman Sachs) control nearly 95% of the US derivatives market, which has grown by 20% since just last year, to  $235 trillion JPM Chase holds 11% of the world’s derivative exposure, Citibank, Bank of America, and Goldman comprise about 7% each. Goldman has 537 times as many (from 440 times last year) derivatives as assets and it’s still considered a bank holding company (as per Bernanke) that gets federal backing.


In all, the President's speech was reminiscent of George Clooney’s in Ides of March. We’ve heard it all before, maybe with slightly different words: America lost 4 million jobs before I got here, and another 4 million before our policies went into effect, but in the last 12 months, we added 3 million job. We must reduce tax loopholes, and provide tax incentives to businesses that hire in America. We must reform taxes for the wealthy (though he signed an extension of Bush’s tax cuts.) We must train people for an apparent abundance of expert jobs. We need more clean energy initiatives.  We created regulations (big sigh of relief he didn’t use the word ‘sweeping’) to avoid fraudulent financial practices. We will help homeowners. Wall Street must ‘make up a trust deficit.”   Like Jamie Dimon cares. 


In other words, Obama gave Wall Street a pass, while waxing populace. Don’t get me wrong. I expected nothing different. I will continue to expect nothing different, when he gets a second term, given the lame field of contenders all around.


Read more - 
http://www.zerohedge.com/news/guest-post-president-obamas-state-union-ten-skirted-issues

Air Canada flight delayed after escaped cat runs into cockpit -

Air Canada flight delayed after escaped cat runs into cockpit - 


A cat called Ripples caused an Air Canada flight to be delayed for several hours Wednesday after escaping from its carrier and running into the cockpit at the Halifax airport, in southeastern Canada.
The flight was due to fly from Halifax to Toronto shortly after 5:30am local time but was forced to remain grounded after Ripples got loose, public broadcaster the CBC reported.
Passenger Kyle Warkentin said the cat's owner, who was very upset, called out for Ripples while members of the cabin crew scoured the plane for the pet.
Parts of the cockpit looked like they were dismantled in the search for Ripples, Warkentin told CBC News.
The cat eventually was found, but the flight faced further delays as wiring in the cockpit had to be checked for damage.
The flight finally took off at 10:00am local time.




Read more: http://www.foxnews.com/world/2012/01/25/air-canada-flight-delayed-after-escaped-cat-runs-into-cockpit/?test=latestnews

Sunlight reflected off of energy efficient windows melting the plastic components on cars parked in carport -

Sunlight reflected off of energy efficient windows melting the plastic components on cars parked in carport - 


A SoCal woman says the energy efficient window installed in a neighbor’s condominium is melting the plastic components on cars parked in her carport.


Heather Patron of Studio City was dealing with a mystery regarding her Toyota Prius.


“The side view mirrors were melting,” says Patron. “Anything that was plastic on the car was melting.”


Toyota told Patron nothing was wrong with the car. After having the mirrors replaced, she noticed the mirrors on the car parked next to hers were also melting.



Patron then observed a powerful beam of light that was reflecting off the window of a next door condominium, casting a concentrated beam over her carport.


CBS2’s Randy Paige placed a thermometer in the pathway of the beam on a partially cloudy day. The temperature registered over 120 degrees in less than five minutes.


“I’m positive that this window is what is causing the damage to my car,” says Patron.


Patron is not alone. Reports across the country have alleged damages brought on by concentrated sunlight reflected off of energy efficient windows. The National Association of Home Builders is now conducting a study on the matter.


“I just don’t feel like it’s fair,” says Patron. “I feel like it needs to be known that this is happening. And a lot of people probably have damage out there, that they aren’t aware that it’s the windows that are causing this.”


The Los Angeles City Department of Building and Safety says even if the window is the source of the damage, there are no code violations involved. The department says it’s not against the law to install a window that reflects sunlight.


Read more - 
http://losangeles.cbslocal.com/2012/01/25/woman-claims-neighbors-energy-efficient-windows-are-melting-her-toyota-prius/

United States Postal Service has three full-time employees that are 98 years old... -

United States Postal Service has three full-time employees that are 98 years old... - 




The U.S. Postal Service needs to slash 260,000 jobs and end weekend delivery if it is to climb out of its "financially insolvent" condition, Rep. Darrell Issa said.


Despite a mandate to avoid deficits, the post office loses up to $15 billion a year, Issa told CNBC during an informal gathering of senior House Oversight and Government Reform Committee members.


"It's a combination of delivering what people want at a price they're willing to pay," the California Republican said. "We've restricted what the post office can charge for various classes of mail. But the biggest challenge is there are about 660,000 workers at the post office. In the private sector there would be about 400,000."


Though Issa's numbers are likely on the high side — the most recent official estimates from the postal service put the total employees at 574,000 — reducing the size of the workforce and consolidating operations has been a priority.


Figuring out where the waste lies and streamlining operations are assignments for those who oversee the service, which receives no taxpayer funding despite being supervised by the government.


"It's not a debate about whether we need to get to that number. It's about how we get there," Issa said. "Do we get there by inducing retirements and finding ways to trim that workforce? Or do we wait for people to retire from an organization that has three fulltime employees that are 98 years old, literally."




Issa recalled that when he was a boy the post office delivered mail seven days a week and twice from Monday through Friday — though Sunday deliveries have been a rarity since 1912 and twice-daily deliveries were phased out completely by 1990.


In the digital era and its lightning-fast transactions done through e-mail and other avenues, such an ambitious postal service is no longer necessary, he said.


Issa specifically called for the streamlining of the service's 461 processing centers, half of which he would close.


"We have a problem that the post office can't seem to shrink on its own fast enough," Issa said. "Today we're in an Internet age in which mail is for less than it used to be. You can now do documentation and contracts and you can buy and sell billion-dollar entities over the Internet.


He added: "Is there a reason for the post office? Absolutely. Do we need six-day delivery? I personally don't think so."


Read more - 
http://www.cnbc.com/id/46114130

Jay Leno and NBC Sued Over Mitt Romney Joke -

Jay Leno and NBC Sued Over Mitt Romney Joke - 


Jay Leno thought he was poking gentle fun at the lifestyles of rich and famous Republican presidential candidates — Mitt Romney in particular. But last Thursday when Leno’s slide show came to a location cited as Mitt Romney’s summer home — in reality an image of the Sikh holy shrine Golden Temple in Amritsar, India — it sparked a diplomatic incident. And now, a lawsuit charging Leno and NBC with libel.


Dr. Randeep Dhillon of Bakersfield filed the suit today in Los Angeles Superior Court. On behalf of himself and Bol Punjabi All Regions Community Organization, the suit charges that the broadcast was libelous on its face and exposed Sikhs and their religion to hatred, contempt and ridicule because it portrayed the holiest place in the Sikh religion as a vacation resort owned by a non-Sikh. The suit charges that Leno’s use of the photo of the temple was intentional, deliberately false and “hurt the sentiments of all Sikh people in addition to those of the plaintiff.” The suit seeks general, special and punitive damages as well as court costs. It appears that video of the segment in question has been removed from NBC’s website.


Separately, Sikh leader Dalbeg Singh said today community leaders would seek an apology from Leno. India’s foreign ministry said a formal complaint had been lodged with the State Department in Washington.


Read more - 
http://www.deadline.com/2012/01/jay-leno-nbc-sued-over-mitt-romney-joke/

Romney gave 15% to charity; Obama gave 1%... - and Joe Biden gave $369 dollars ... -

Romney gave 15% to charity; Obama gave 1%... - and Joe Biden gave $369 dollars ... - 




Romney charitable contributions 


Tax year    Taxable income          Charitable donations Donations as % of income
2010           $21.7 million                 $2.98 million                13.73%
2011 (est)   $20.9 million                $4 million                     19.14%



Democratic presidential candidate Barack Obama and his wife Michelle gave $10,772 of the $1.2 million they earned from 2000 through 2004 to charities, or less than 1 percent, according to tax returns for those years released today by his campaign.



I'm really struggling to work out what all the fuss is about over this one. It seems to me to be much ado about nothing. Breaking news: Mitt Romney is very rich. He also gave millions and millions of dollars to charity and to the taxman.


In the early hours of this morning, some 550 pages of Mitt Romney's tax returns and a 2011 tax summary were released by his campaign. Just after dawn, there was a long campaign conference call for bleary-eyed reporters in which an accountant (who sounded exactly like you'd imagine Mitt Romney's accountant would sound) went into details of Mitt millions in mind-numbing detail.


There was an air of grumpy efficency about the call, which was led by Ben Ginsberg, who was George W. Bush's lawyer during the Florida election recount in 2000. At one point Ginsberg noted that 26 people from Chicago were listening into the proceedings, a reference to the Obama campaign headquarters.


So what were the headlines? He raked in about $42 million in 2010 and 2011. His effective tax rate was just below 14 percent, lower than that for many American taxpayers. He paid $6.2 million to the taxman and donated a staggering $7 million to charity, including $4.1 million to the Mormon church.


OK, so Mormons are supposed to tithe 10 percent of their income. But it's to Romney's immense credit that he promised to do this in his youth and followed through with that - to the tune of scores of millions (maybe hundreds of millions) of dollars throughout his life.


In fact, in those two years, he paid 16 percent of his income to charity, compared to, er, 2.6 percent by Newt Gingrich.


And what about President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden in the run-up to their 2008 campaign?


USA Today broke it down here. In 2007, the Obamas gave more than $240,000 to charity, about 5.7 percent of their income. The Bidens gave an average of $369 to charity a year for the decade before he moved to the Naval Observatory - about 0.3 percent of their income. Back in 1997, then veep Al Gore and his then wife Tipper gave $353.
Read more -
http://nation.foxnews.com/mitt-romney/2012/01/24/whos-greedy-obama-gave-1-charity-romney-gave-15