GREER, S.C. - Republican presidential contender Mitt Romney declared Thursday he has paid at least 13 percent of his income in federal taxes every year for the past decade, offering that new detail while still decrying a "small-minded" fascination over returns he will not release.
President Obama's campaign shot back in doubt: "Prove it."
Campaigning separately, Romney and running mate Paul Ryan also scrambled to explain their views on overhauling Medicare.
Romney, the former company CEO, set up a whiteboard to make his case with a marker, while lawmaker Ryan resorted to congressional process language to explain why his budget plan includes the same $700 billion Medicare cut that he and Romney are assailing Obama for endorsing.
Essentially, Ryan said, he had to do it because Obama did it first.
People are also reading…
Politically, both topics tie into major elements of the presidential race less than three months before the election: how well the candidates relate to the daily concerns and to the life circumstances of typical voters. Democrats are using the tax issue to raise doubts about Romney's trustworthiness - or, as Republicans contend, to distract from a weak economic recovery under Obama.
Romney's comments in South Carolina - at a news conference designed to focus on Medicare - showed that he remains sensitive to criticism of his tax payments but still is determined to release no more than two years of records.
The Obama campaign has aired an ad that, without evidence, raises the prospect that Romney paid no taxes some years.
Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, D-Nev., elevated that suggestion by claiming, also without proof, that an anonymous source told him Romney had not paid taxes for 10 years.
"I did go back and look at my taxes and over the past 10 years I never paid less than 13 percent," Romney told reporters in South Carolina. "I think the most recent year is 13.6 or something like that. So I paid taxes every single year."
Aides later said Romney meant to say 13.9 percent, the amount he already disclosed for his 2010 federal return.
On average, middle-income families, those making from $50,000 to $75,000 a year, pay 12.8 percent of their income in federal taxes, according to the nonpartisan Joint Committee on Taxation. In 2010 and 2011, Romney made about $21 million a year.
Romney is able to keep his tax rate low because most of his income is from investments, which are generally taxed at a lower rate than wages.
