♪ >> hang on. it's probably, closer to 15% rate i think in my last ten years, i-- my income comes overwhelmingly from vaefrments made in the past rather than ordinary income or earned annual income. i've got a little bit of income from my book, but i gave that all away and then i get speakers fees from time to time, but not very much. >> paul: those words helped get mitt romney into a heap of trouble this week as democrats and some of his republican rivals jumped on his admission that he pays about 15% in federal taxes and that coupled

with with miss reluctance to release his tax returns could spell bigger problems down the the road. so can mitt romney get out in front of the tax issue. we're back with dan eninger, steve moore, and mary anastasia o'grady. how big of a problem is that he pays 15%. >> the problem is he sounds so defensive. a guy who actually paid his taxes unlike the treasury secretary secretary on behalf of the obama cabinet. he's got to basically make the point. two points, the one we made in our editorial the other day, this mythology that the rich don't pay their fair share in taxes as we showed in our editorial. when you include the corporate taxes that are paid. rich people like mitt romney and warren buffett is twice as high as the tax rate paid on the middle class.

>> so, 15%. >> that's right, that's a big differential. so it's a myth that somehow, warren buffett and mitt romney are paying less than a plumber or a secretary and of course, as we all know, barack obama is going to make that class warfare issue the center piece of his reelection campaign and he also has to do a better job, in my opinion. he said he wasn't going to apologize for being successful and then he apologizes for being successful. i think that's his problem. he's on the defensive too much. >> paul: why won't he-- we met with mitt romney, mary, he came in and we had a very good session, almost 90 minutes. why won't he come out for a tax reform that says i pay this because of the reason that steve made that point. now what, i'd like that for everybody. >> you know, i think his big problem is he wants to run as a moderate, the more center guy who can, you know, both votes from the right, but also those independents and i think he's afraid that, you know, if

he calls for tax cuts and releases his income taxes and it shows that he's high income earner, they're going to start streaming at him that he wants to enrich himself and that he calls for-- doesn't call for tax cuts he's got a problem on the right. so he's trying to work it in the middle and why he's having so much trouble. >> paul: it seems that he can't dodge this fight. it doesn't matter, it doesn't matter. now that people know he's paid 15%, he's basically got to fight on this issue because the president obama campaign will take it to him anyway. >> in the white house, this is the campaign they're been setting up the last year. let's go after mr. 1% guy and he has to get over the self-consciousness and it's really, with the economic problem in a warricks it's not about him, what he made and his brilliance. >> paul: but he makes it about him. >> he makes it about him. and he's got to take it from the next step, how do we let more people make a profit and

get job growth and that's lower taxes. >> we want to show a clip of john king and the debate and asking mitt romney if he wants to release the tax returns for 12 years like mitt romney father had? >> when you release yours, will you follow your father's example? >> maybe. >> you know, i don't know how many years i'll release, i'll take a look at what our documents are-- and i'll release multiple years, i don't know how many years and, but i'll be happy to do that. >> what was the problem with that answer, dan? or was that fine? >> no, that was a mess, and got a lot worse. >> he subsequently, i think the reason came out in what he said right after that. i think he said thee times, that if he does this, he knows the democrats are going to make a big deal of his tax return. >> paul: so, they're going to make it big deal. >> he's clearly obsessed with the idea that they're going to do something with it, now what they're going to do with it,

they're going to take the tax returns and make a commercial out of the first page of his tax return where at the bottom it says, adjusted gross income, 10 million dollars, 15 million dollars. the guy is worth 250 million dollars, he can't deny the the fact. >> i'm kind of ashamed of the other candidates like rick santorum and newt gingrich gee, i pay a higher tax rate than he did, as if there's something wrong with a 15% tax rate on investment income. look, the reason they pay the lower rate is because the tax was already applied at the corporate level and real effective rate is about 40%. i think the only way out of this, paul, for mitt romney to take the offensive and to talk about the fact that he was a job creator, that he created businesses, that he created wealth unlike the president who is a community organizers and never worked for a business let alone started a business. >> paul: is that the way out of this ticket? >> it's absolutely the way out. and not only, let's not stop with capital gains taxes, we

should have a conversation what is the purpose of taxes, try to make us equal. is it to take money from people who have taken risks and deferred consumption in order to save and invest and punish them? >> i think in his heart of hearts, mitt romney feels a little guilty about success, if he feels a little guilty in the campaign, it will show. >> i think it feels guilty the way a lot of investors feel guilty. the top is 40%. they don't pay that, they're investors, 15%. as long as you have a tax code they are he' going to game the system and feel bad about it. >> last word, dan, when we come back, two-thirds of republican primary voters in south carolina call themselves evangelical or born again. who are they likely to turn out for today and why haven't christian conservatives rallied around a single candidate? we'll ask a prominent leader in the evangelical movement next.

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>> when more than 150 leaders met in texas, to decide once and for all which of the republicans candidates to endorse. while many voted rick santorum. the supporters of the newt gingrich put support behind him. southern baptist ethics and liberty commission, i spoke with him earlier and asked why evangelical conservatives haven't been able to unite around a single candidate. >> well, i think they felt they had when they left a previous meeting in august and they thought it was going to be governor perry. i left that meeting, in that meeting i looked around and i thought, you know, if a bomb

went off here, the social conservative movement with be decapitated and almost everybody was there and they game away, rick perry go a great job at that meeting and imploded when he got into the race and he'd soared to the top and i thought that social conservatives thought they'd found their guy and then he flopped. and so, people turned in different directions, and some turned to santorum, some turned to romney, some turned to gingrich, some turned to bachmann and so, there was a real feeling, especially after the iowa caucus, when you look at the vote totals, if you took perry's total and bachmann's total and gingrich and santorum, they nearly doubled romney's total. so the feeling was, let's get together and see if it's possible to quite dividing our resources and dividing our loyalties and try to come behind one candidate and we

actually achieved more consensus at that meeting than i think anybody went to that meeting thinking we could. we achieved a strong consensus in favor of santorum with a minority report for gingrich. >> all right, if newt gingrich is now as he seems to be in the polls, surging in south carolina and if should do well there and maybe win, where does that leave social conservatives? would they then change and unite behind gingrich. >> i think some of them will, some of them will maybe later, if he continues to do well. and i think the main effect of gingrich doing very well or winning in south carolina will be to elongate the process. let's remember that nearly half the people in florida, have already voted, because, they have early voting, so, late trends will not impact that election as much as they will in south carolina, and so, i think what, if gingrich does very well, or wins in south carolina, that just

means that santorum and gingrich and romney and paul will live to fight another day after florida. >> all right, well, what are the-- what do you think the impact is on cultural conservatives or the accusations now by newt gingrich's second wife? those have been electric in the media and the speaker responded to them in defiant-- responded to them in defiant terms in the debate. is that going to have an impact on the race? >> i think it will, and i think that tspeaker's marital has had an impact from the beginning. let me say no one knows what goes on in a marriage, just the people in it and sometimes they don't know and i think that the media is it being unfair in treating republicans like gingrich differently than they do democrats like edwards

and clan clinton when they have moral foibles and i understand one difference, that the republicans are claiming to be the party the of family values. and if you're going to be the party of family values, he when you fail to live up to those values, then, you need to expect to be called on them. >> all right. now, let me ask you about mitt romney and the mormon question, because, four years ago, a lot of people thought that that hurt mitt romney, especially when he was running against mike huckabee and social conservatives. how is that playing this year? is that as big a usual now as it was then? >> i don't think it's as big a usual, an issue for minority of evangelicals. ironically part of the problem has been that governor romney has not been mormon enough on the issues that matter the most to social conservatives. if governor romney had halls had the position on the

sanctity of human life and traditional marriage versus same sex marriage that his church has had. there would be less doubt whether he's a true social conservative. i think one of the reasons that he's doing better among evangelicals this year, than he did four years ago, is that he's he had four more years of being pro-life and being pro traditional marriage and i thought that he, among others, that they were quite eloquent in the new hampshire dehe spite in explaining why they were against discrimination against gays, but were against same sex marriage. i thought they explained it quite eloquently and better than anyone did except huckabee in 2008. quickly, if mitt romney should get the nomination, do you think that his religion would effect turnout among evangelical christians? would some stay home? >> i doubt it. a very small number. do not underestimate president obama's ability to energize

and unite social conservatives against, for his opponent. >> all right. thank you so much for being here. >> you bet. >> paul: when we come back, president obama may not have a republican opponent yet, but his reelection campaign is in full swing. what this week's rejection of the keystone pipeline project does to sell himself as the energy president. [ male annouer ] juice drink too watery? ♪ feel the power my young friend. mmm! [ male announcer ] for unsurpassed fru and veggie nutrition... v8 v-fusion. could've had a v8.

>> well, i may not have a republican opponent yet, but the obama reelection effort has kicked into high gear with this ad touting the president's energy eye achievements in battle ground states the same week that he

decided to reject the keystone oil project. >> secret oil billionaires attacking president obama with facts checkers say are not the fact. and call the president's record on this unprecedented and america's clean energy industry 2.7 million jobs and expanding rapidly the first time in 13 years our dependence on foreign oil is below 50%. president obama kept his promise to toughen ethics rules and strengthen america's energy economy. >> paul: so, mary, is that an accurate reflection of his energy record. >> that's going to be a tough sell, i think. you know, from drilling to off shore drilling, to natural gas, to transportation, in the keystone pipeline, he doesn't want exploration, he doesn't want exploittation, and he doesn't want transportation, so he's got the perfect trifecta. >> it's true that our energy production here has crept up

above 50 percent of our use, because of private sector and oil production using new techniques, high drawlic fracturing and horizontal drilling, does it have anything to do with his policies? >> no, things keep functioning even if you have a president that doesn't cooperate. if you really look at the way that he views energy, politically, he is supported by people who don't want anyone more fossil fuels and he has tried to placate them so he can get campaign contributions and that means being anti-oil, anti-natural gas, and they said, anti-distribution in the form of the keystone pipeline. >> steve, you know, the president-- >> let me ask you a question, steven and get your answer to this. the president had to choose, in the keystone issue between his blue collar workers and industrial union who supported it and the greens who opposed it and he went with the the greens, why? >> he did. well, this is one of the issues, 99% versus the 1%, the

1% are radical environmentalists and most americans want the jobs and the reason he sided with the environmentalists because at heart he believes in their agenda and the reason, paul, the story is so important, is because remember, barack obama basically said he was going to have a green agenda that would create jobs and he keystone tells us, the truth is that the green agenda is pro unemployment and anti-jobs, this is 20,000 jobs down the drain and they are union jobs. >> paul: is there anything the republicans can do? they thought they had him in a corner he had to decide. instead of kind of escaped it and blamed them. is there anything they can do about this to build this pipeline now? >> they could promise to build it on day one if you elect a republican president and hold hearings on the job losses. i think the president is vulnerable, that ad is accurate, act reflection of what he believes. another element a week or so ago, secretary of interior salazar put off limits a million acres in northern arizona to uranium mining. that's the nuclear industry,

right? >> right. >> so you've got natural gas, you've got oil, and you've got the nuclear industry which is being suppressed by the obama administration. well, they tried to raise up the wind mills and solar industries, that the green environmental movement wants to create. the problem is the bottom is falling out from beneath the solar industry right now. >> paul: so, these, these oil sands, the oil and oil sands of canada is going to be produced anyway, the canadian says to the west coast and to asia if it isn't through the keystone to the gulf coast, all that would happen u.s. jobs are lost. nothing about global warming or climate change, no impact. >> yes, but i disagree with steve that he really believes in the green agenda. this is a political calculation and you know, i think he was worried about what happens in september when he gets to the convention and he gets attacked by an organization, the the same type of protests that

surrounded the white house in november, and forced the state department to backtrack on essentially what it was signaling, which was that it was going to be an i lou the keystone pipeline go ahead. he's afraid of that and he wants the money from that coalition. >> he's got the politics all wrong on this everyone wants that pipeline built. >> paul: we have to take one more break, when we come back, hits and misses of the week. i wouldn't do that. get married? no, i wouldn't use that single miles credit card. nice ring. knock it off. ignore him. with the capital one venture card you earn... double miles on every purchase. [ sharon ] 3d is so real larry. i'm right here larry. if you're not earning double miles... you're settling for half. really? a plaid tie? what, are we in prep school? [ male announcer ] get the venture card at capitalone.com and earn double miles ... was gonna say that. uh huh...

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[ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...allstate. really? i was afraid you'd have some cut-rate policy. [ kyle ] nope, i've got... [ kyle with voice of dennis ] ...the allstate value plan. it's their most affordable car insurance -- and you still get an allstate agent. i too have...[ roger with voice of dennis ]...allstate. [ roger ] same agent and everything. [ kyle ] it's like we're connected. no we're not. yeah, we are. no...we're not. ♪ the allstate value plan. dollar for dollar, nobody protects you like allstate. >> paul: time for hits and misses of the week. jason. >> this is excellent david reubenstein who is donating $7.5 million to repair the washington monument. so the only question is whether newt gingrich will approve the donation because mr. reubenstein made his money in private equity at carlisle. in cuba, it's been trying to

improve the image. but they have another jailed dissident. he was a 31-year-old peaceful activist whose only crime is speaking against the dictatorship and he died on a hunger strike this week. >> this is a hit to chris christie. voters are upset, new hampshire governor chris christie but the experiment continues in new hampshire. he laid out a plan to cut taxes 10% across the board, not just for some people that invested in windmills. good into news for the state. >> paul: what is his approval rating? >> in the 50s in the public polls. he told thus week in higher in private polls. at least it's working and based on the reforms so far you have to be optimistic. >> paul: that is it for this edition of the journal editorial report.