Mtit Romney's Troubles That Starts with T(axes)

See, I'm not one of the 47 percent of Americans who aren't like me.

...and ends with paying an effective rate of 14.1% on his 2011 taxes.Taegan Goodard's Political Wire reports that Romney took fewer charitable contribution deductions than entitled to, probably in order to stay above the 13% he claims to pay every year. This amounts to gaming his 2011 tax return to improve appearances.

Remember, Mitt Romney proudly stated that, in principle, he took every deduction he was entitled to. Not now, it seems.

I'll update this when his 1990-2009 tax amounts are released -- not his returns, just the percentages. His tax firm will release them shortly. Deep thought: Just how panicked is Romney after his 47% thermonuclear gaffe, er, I mean revelation?

Update. Fox News announces that Mitt Romney's average effective tax rate for the period of 1990 to 2009 was 20.2%. We'll see when we get the numbers if, one, they're different, and, two, if the individual years are announced.

Update 2. As suggested by Taegan Goddard, Romney intentionally overpaid his taxes in 2011 by not taking all the charitable contribution deductions available to him. Dan Froomkin just tweeted that if Romney had taken all he was entitled to, his effective rate would have been 9%. Daily Kos, for good measure, resurrected this July Romney statement:

"Frankly, if I had paid more than are legally due, I don't think I'd be qualified to become president," he said. "I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires."

 And thus, Daily Kos points out, Romney's actions on taxes do in fact disqualify him from becoming president.

Update 3. Hunter of Daily Kos points out that this is a Friday news dump, what is commonly called "throwing it out with the trash" in hopes that is gets lost in the weekend news cycle. Of course, that doesn't work as well in the Internet age. Also new details come out on mittromney.com that beyond the average effective rate (22.2%) in that we also learn the lowest yearly rate was 13.66%.

That the Romney campaign would put this out on a Friday night and limit the information to this paltry amount is tantamount to announcing "you're getting this and not a damned drop more. Live with it."