David Simon, millionaire, job creator, and plain ol’ creator of some of the best television in history (“Treme” and “The Wire”) was so incensed with GOP presidential candidate Mitt “Thurston J. Howell IV” Romney’s assurances that — while he ain’t letting go of his tax returns any time soon — he has paid at least 13 percent of his income in taxes over the past ten years that Simon took to his blog for a mini rant that has since blown up big on the internet.
A sample: “Am I supposed to congratulate this man? Thank him for his good citizenship? Compliment him for being clever enough to arm himself with enough tax lawyers so that he could legally minimize his obligations? Thirteen percent. The last time I paid taxes at that rate, I believe I might still have been in college. If not, it was my first couple years as a newspaper reporter. Since then, the paychecks have been just fine, thanks, and I don’t see any reason not to pay at the rate appropriate to my earnings, given that I’m writing the check to the same government that provided the economic environment that allowed for such incomes…”