Unless you were glued to your Twitter feed this week, you probably missed something. If you did, North By Northwestern has you covered. Here’s what you didn’t catch from this week in the GOP ’12 field.
Dark Side of the Moon
In probably one of the most bizarre plans ever revealed during a GOP presidential debate, contender Newt Gingrich harkened to President John F. Kennedy's 1961 speech discussing the goal of getting to the moon in front of Congress. Except in true Gingrich fashion, his plan makes Kennedy seem like he was presenting a routine budget bill. Gingrich shared his plan for moon colonization with the 700-member audience, who seemed enthusiastic about the proposal, at a Florida GOP debate.
We bet the space-coastal audience would have been a little less excited, though, if they had realized how Gingrich wanted to do this — through privatization of the space travel field. Yep, President Gingrich would create a moon colony (which could apply for statehood once the population reaches 13,000), while making an already skeletal NASA even leaner!
Richie Rich Romney
Speaking of astronomical, Mitt Romney finally released his tax returns from 2010 (but only after much pressure from his opponents). And wow, if you thought Gingrich's dreams of moon colonies meant his head was in space, you might want to check this out: Romney was taxed $6.2 million for a total income of $42.5 million last year. He could pay this low rate in taxes (just less than 14 percent), of course, because of the low capital gains tax rate in America (15 percent).
So, Romney paid less in taxes than your high school math teacher. If you want to see how long it would take for everyone's favorite Mormon contender to make what you raked in last year, go to Slate's excellent "Romney income calculator." (Hint: It may have taken him less than a day to acquire all of your 2010 income. Cheers!)