From February 2010 through February 2011 Mitt Romney received $362,000 for giving speeches. According to Romney, that’s “not very much.”
I played around with numbers a bit this morning to point out ways in which $362,000 is in fact quite a bit of money. It’s more than the cost of six houses sold at the average price in the Detroit area. It’s about fifteen times the average recent college graduate’s student loan debt. It’s twenty-two times the average household’s credit card debt.
Romney’s statement is the latest proof that he’s a plutocrat out of touch with the economic struggles of most Americans. But it’s also a helpful figure to demonstrate the Republicans’ continuing financial catastrophe:
$362,000 is equal to one-eighth the money Mitt Romney’s campaign spent on TV advertising before the Iowa caucuses.
$362,000 is equal to almost 40% of what Newt Gingrich’s campaign spent on TV advertising before the Iowa caucuses.
$362,000 is almost $100,000 more than what the pro-Gingrich SuperPAC spent on TV advertising before the Iowa caucuses.
$362,000 is more than thirteen times what Rick Santorum’s campaign spent on TV advertising in Iowa.
Mitt Romney’s such a weak candidate that he couldn’t win the Iowa caucuses against a guy whose campaign spent one thirteenth an amount that Romney considers chump change.
It’s the cost on one person’s food stamp “haul” for 52 years.