Stewart Rips Mitt's Tax Rate

Jon Stewart ripped into Mitt Romney's tax return last night, and Elizabeth Warren showed up later to hammer home the point. "How can you justify making more in one day than the median American family makes in a year, while paying an effective tax rate of the guy who has to scan your shoes at the airport?" Stewart asked incredulously. Sure, as Romney pointed out, we might not want a candidate "who pays more taxes than he owes," Stewart agreed. "No, but we might want one who thinks that's wrong." Added Warren later in the show, "Washington now works for those who can hire an army of lobbyists." She pointed, to a booing audience, to a recent study showing the US' top 30 corporations spend more on lobbying than their tax bill. "That is the investment, and that is what they see as the future."

Stewart points to an effort a few years back to raise the tax rate on private equity firms. Romney was opposed to that bill, he said at the time, saying he didn't think it was "a good idea to raise taxes." "Yeah," Stewart said, "'cause they're your taxes." Romney rails against an "entitlement society," but expects to save millions in taxes himself. Trouble is, said Stewart, "poor people have sh--ty lobbyists." The full Warren interview is in the gallery; or, to see how long it takes Romney to make your annual salary, check out Slate's calculator here. (More Jon Stewart stories.)