OK, at the risk of dating myself, here’s my Gomer Pyle imitation. Mitt Romney has released his 2010 tax return and sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise! He’s a rich guy. Guess how he got rich? Sur-prise, sur-prise, sur-prise! Through investments. And because he makes most of his money through investments, he paid a lower effective federal income tax rate than you may have.

Therefore, he shouldn’t be President. Right? That, folks, is a Gomer Pyle conclusion.

“But he didn’t pay his fair share!” some will say. News flash, yes he did in combing through his return). Romney paid what the law required him to pay; he doesn’t have to pay anything more, as he pointed out. The fact that the law is not fair, does not lead to the conclusion that Romney didn’t pay his fair share. That’s an unfair conclusion no matter how clever the politician who makes it is.

And that’s the point: the law is not fair. The tax law is written by politicians who need a lot of money to campaign. The power to write the tax laws allows them to pick winners and losers – and they do so with gusto. And it’s bipartisan; just ask New York Democrat Senator Chuck Schumer why he thinks hedge fund managers should pay a lower tax rate than a lot of us.

Romney’s a winner in this game. Losers include a good chunk of the middle class. Yes, they are the top part of the middle class – doctors, lawyers, architects, university presidents. But they make most of their money through W-2 wages and don’t employ lobbyists.

Now, blue-collar background guys like me think of wages as earned income; we think of money earned from investments as unearned income. But no matter how you look at it, some income is better than other income, at least according to our elected officials.

So, if you paid a higher effective federal income tax rate than Romney did, you are a loser under the tax system we have. And whose fault is that? Ours, for not paying attention. Maybe Mitt Romney has done us all a favor by reminding us that our lawmakers often look out for special interests and not our interests.

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