Mitt Romney's strategy on hiding his tax returns has, oddly enough, gone largely according to plan. Here was the strategy in a nutshell: (1) release fewer tax returns than any modern president; (2) ignore appeals for more disclosure, no matter how many legitimate questions arose; and (3) wait for the questions to go away.
The secrecy hasn't been healthy to the democratic process, and there are all kinds of pertinent questions about Romney's controversial finances that remain unanswered, but the political media establishment, which pushed pretty aggressively on this story for a long while, eventually moved on, just as Romney hoped.
To get the story going again, we'd need some kind of new revelation. Wait, here's one now.
As part of its [vice-presidential vetting process], the Romney campaign required at least some of the candidates on the short list -- including the eventual winner of the GOP veepstakes, Ryan -- to submit fully 10 years of tax returns, according to a knowledgeable source.
The requirement was consistent with the past practices of both Republican and Democratic campaigns. Indeed, in 2008, Mitt Romney turned over 23 years of taxes to John McCain's campaign when he was under consideration to be the Arizona senator's running mate.
It's worth noting that the 10-year figure hasn't been confirmed elsewhere, and the Romney campaign would neither confirm nor deny the accuracy of the report.
That said, the Daily Beast report doesn't come as much of a surprise, either. Beth Myers, who oversaw Romney's vice-presidential search, conceded she'd obtained "several years" of income tax returns from those being considered, and Ryan himself told CBS it was "a very exhaustive vetting process," and he shared materials going back "several years." The notion that Team Romney would request 10 years' worth of documents is easy to believe -- indeed, the total, if anything, seems a little low, not implausibly high.
And so, if we work under the assumption that the Daily Beast piece is accurate, we're once again left with an obvious question: why does Team Romney believe 10 years' worth of tax returns is a reasonable number as part of a thorough examination of a candidate's record, but American voters are only entitled to one-fifth of that total as part of their own examination of a candidate's record?
Ben LaBolt, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, hardly seems unreasonable when he says, "[If Romney] needed 10 years of returns to decide on a vice presidential candidate, don't the American people need the same to make their choice for president?"
Heck, the Obama campaign recently said they'd settle for five years' worth of returns and promise to never ask for more. That was deemed excessive, too.
The question of why in the world Romney feels the need to keep his records secret from the public continues to linger.
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Everyone understands he is hiding something. We just don't know what that "something" is and how many of them there are. His actions to date suggest that it is potentially very, very damaging to his credibility to become President, not that he has much credibility left.
After the cheap political shot he took at Obama yesterday , I have no respect for Mitt Romney. This guy is so desperate to get ahead in the polls that he is willing to do anything to achive it. Even if it means looking like a fool in front of the American people. The U.S. Embassy in egypt was only trying to difuse a serious situation that eventually turned violent. For Mitt Romney to do a press conference and acuse the president of apologizing for our American values is really LUDICROUS !... Mitt Romney could have look presidential if he cut Obama some slack and stayed above the fray, but he decided to go for the cheap political shot instead !..
Mitt Romney does not deserve to be president of these United States !..
Okay, the Embassy makes a statement and later stands behind the statement. Romney says the statement was not appropriate. Then Obama and his administration say the statement was not approved and does not represent their view. So, Romney and Obama seem to agree about the statement to me.
"It’s disgraceful that the Obama administration’s first response was not to condemn attacks on our diplomatic missions, but to sympathize with those who waged the attacks."
-In what f#$#king bizarro world can you make an equilivency here between Obama and Romney positions. Surely you are purposely being obtuse.
Romney and Obama both agree on the following that the statement released by the embassy does not reflect the position of the American people:
Romney says this statement sympathizes with those who would do the US harm. I don't know why Obama characterizes this statement as not in line with US view, do you?
We should always thank RobDon when he comes along for his daily marking of the fire hydrants and demonstration of how ignorant ignorance has to be to be able to celebrate stupidity as easily as he does, thus qualifying for his citizenship in WackoWorld.
Thanks TCinLA for correcting me on my facts...oh, wait, you didn't. You just called me ignorant and stupid but were unable to challenge my facts. Hmmm, who's really living in WackoWorld?
Saying that a statement wasn't cleared and doesn't reflect the official view of the U.S. government is light years away from saying that such a statement expresses sympathy towards the protesters.
Rational observers figured that out instantly. Sorry if that is too complex for you.
bdop4, why do "rational observers" figure the statement doesn't represent the views of the U.S.? What in the statement doesn't represent us? They didn't say it doesn't "necessarily" reflect the views of the US, the administration said it does NOT represent...
If you read my statement, you'll notice I said that the point of agreement was that the statement did not represent U.S., I don't know why Obama thinks it does not represent us, do you?
Sorry this seems to complex for you.
So if you decide to keep your private life private, you're guilty of something in the eyes of a democrat? Okay, where is Obama's college record, his student status as foreign student, etc. Democrat Children -- it's time to Grow up.
But, but, but the college transcripts. And hiding the secret Kenyan scholarship that financed his education. And sealing his "thesis" (because every undergrad writes a thesis, right)? Obama's spent millions and millions of dollars hiding those records and I know this because Everyone Knows it and anyway shut up.
There, just wanted to give the trolls a time off on this one as a little 9/13 gift. Take five guys, you're work here is already done.
Actually, I was thinking, did Obama released everything he discovered about potential VP candidates he gathered from VP vetting? Of course not!
To make the argument that Romney required something of someone he vetted for VP and thus he should submit to the same standard before the American public is ridiculous. Do you think President Obama found out more about his potential VP than he was willing to present about himself? Certainly.
There are other stronger arguments for Romney to release his returns than this one.
He shouldn't disclose returns for candidates who are vetted, but should for the candidate selected to run. And the same standard should be held to him as well.
Romney can run but he can't hide on this issue.
When you have a quarter billion dollars and no conscience it is easy to believe you are entitled to do as you wish.
Remember, Mormontologists are god-fearing, family-oriented people who never lie so you can always trust them (except when they are Lyin' for the Lord, which is one of their commandments).
None of the choices for VP had a quarter of a billion, hence, needed to show their credintials for admittance to the club. The fact they were also auditioning to be one heartbeat from leader of the free world was not as important. We, the citizens of the nation they want to lead and have the votes they need to succeed, are not in the club and, therefore, are not entitled to see such minutae.
What I read on a twitter was, how can we trust Romney with our taxes when he has used such scrupulous means of doing his own, can we all cheat now? Would we all get a Swiss Bank Account courtesy of Romney? Does everyone get a tax lawyer? If he were to release his tax returns, without forging them, it would probably be the stick that breaks the camels' back. He keeps coming back though, with even more ridiculous lies then before. There is not one thing that President Obama has done that would indicate he has failed. It's just a word they keep throwing out there for ignorant people to beleive and then repeat.
How can we, or our allies, or our enemies for that matter, trust Mr. Romney with anything when he stands for nothing EXCEPT not revealing his tax returns?
Romney is hiding the source(s) of his 'success'. Enough said.
The question of why in the world Romney feels the need to keep his records secret from the public continues to linger.
To start with, Mittens has not even released ALL of one year's tax returns. Preliminary filing on 2011 and incomplete on 2010. 2010 release did NOT include all forms, especially the forms which would have further delineated what was in his offshore accounts.
Probably reasons to refuse to release more returns:
Tax Amnesty:
- 2008 Swiss had to provide names/accounts of American holders of 'secret' accounts
- 2008 Bush/repukes passed 'tax amnesty' legislation for the tax cheats caught
- 2009 Romney was probably among those who took 'tax amnesty'
Tax Avoidance/Evasion:
- Multiple years will probably show that Willard used every trick in the book (legal/illegal/marginally legal) to pay damn little taxes on gross amounts of income
Offshore Accounts:
- Multiple years will show the extent of Willard's use of offshore accounts to hide income
Tithing:
- Even worse than showing that he is a tax cheat, releasing multiple years returns would probably show that Willard has been cheating the Mormontology Cult out of the full 10% tithe
As is often the case, SadOldVeteran beat me to the punch!
The UBS tax scandal is a very real possibility, and Mitt cannot afford to have it revealed that he was caught cheating and paid the back taxes and a fine- "no harm, no foul"- by the IRS in 2008.
Not just probably. Mitt's 2010 return shows he donated $1.525 million to the LDS on income of $20.6 million. That's 7.4%.
Willard is paving the path for the next generation of teapubs running for office to never release info to the public, especially tax info, so the candidates can be vetted by the public. The teapubs see that the public is letting it slide and now it will be the norm for them, but not for the dimwit dems. They are letting it slide and they shouldn't, but they will have to show their taxes.
The teapub motto: Do as I say, not as I do.
Reasons to see Romney and Ryan tax returns 10 years:
1. Was Bain invested in Stericycle corporation - a vendor to Planned Parenthood - lined Romney's pockets with profits from the incineration of aborted fetuses. This would be in his tax return and how are you against abortion when you are making money from it, or was this his pro-choice cycle of his abortion stance. http://www.mmdnewswire.com/romney-hiding-bain-abortion-profits-116358.htmlTop of Form
2. During Romney’s tenure as a Marriott director, the company repeatedly utilized complex tax-avoidance maneuvers, prompting at least two tangles with the Internal Revenue Service, records show. In 1994, while he headed the audit
committee, Marriott used a tax shelter known to attorneys by its nickname: “Son
of BOSS.” Marriott had to pay huge penalties and I wonder have similar methods been used on Romney’s tax returns? Was Romney ever issued amnesty? http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2012-02-22/romney-as-auditing-chairman-saw-marriott-son-of-boss-tax-shelter-defy-irs.html
3. Need to see Romney’s tax return to see how according to Romney’s disclosure documents, the candidate has between $20.7 million and $101.6 million parked tax-free in his IRA -- a significant proportion of his total wealth, as noted by Mark Maremont in the Wall Street Journal. It’s a whopping sum by most standards; according to the nonprofit Employee Benefit Research Institute, the average IRA held $67,438 in 2010. There are limits to the amount of money individuals can contribute to their IRAs. Before Romney was elected Massachusetts governor, federal law capped annual pre-tax IRA contributions at $2,000 and annual 401(k) retirement contributions at $30,000 with a company match as the Journal notes. There were two articles on this: Huffington Post and Rueters.
4. Would his tax return show the following: Paul Ryan’s financial disclosure forms for Congress that were made public, showed he and his wife own stake in 4 family companies that lease land in Texas and Oklahoma to energy companies that benefit from the tax subsidies in Ryan’s Budget plan. “Ryan’s father-in-law, Daniel Little, who runs the companies, told Newsweek and The Daily Beast that the family companies are currently leasing the land for mining and drilling to energy giants such as Chesapeake Energy, Devon, and XTO Energy, a recently acquired subsidiary of ExxonMobil”
"When asked about the blatant conflict of interest, Ryan’s spokesperson offered up the newly-popular “wife” defense: Ryan’s office says the congressman wasn’t
thinking about himself or the oil companies that lease his land when he drafted
the budget blueprint that extended the energy tax breaks. “These are properties that Congressman Ryanmarried into,” spokesman Kevin Seifert said. “It’s not something he has a lotof control over.” http://thinkprogress.org/climate/2011/06/17/247570/paul-ryan-family-beneft-subsidies-for-big-oil-in-his-budget/
5. Did Paul Ryan benefit from news Congress received about the financial crisis in 2008 and would it show on his tax returns. Is there any truth to this story: “September 18, 2008 the day Fed Chairman Ben Bernanke and then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson broke the news to congressional leaders that they would have to approve a bailout to avert a complete meltdown of the financial system.
Checking through Ryan’s financial disclosure reports, the Richmonder discovered that Ryan had sold the stocks of several major banks that day, while purchasing – surprise! – stock in Paulson’s old firm Goldman Sachs. The story quickly circulated through the media. The Romney campaign rapidly issued denials, based on three separate — and clearly false — claims: 1) the trades were not individual stock trades, but trades made as part of an index that trades big blocs of stocks according to preset formulas; 2) the meeting took place in the evening, after markets were closed, so the meeting could not have played a role in Ryan’s trading decisions; and 3) the stocks traded within a trust over which Ryan had no direct authority.” http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/08/lynn-parramore-revealed-romney-campaigns-attempts-to-deny-paul-ryans-insider-trading-dont-add-up.html
One more possibility: He's hiding billions, not millions.
Before Pooper242 or other idiots pipe up with "If Willard had cheated on his taxes, the IRS would have caught him.":
1) The IRS historically audits a very low single digit percentage of persons in Willard's income range.
2) When they do, it is normal for a 'tax settlement' to be reached without prosecution and without it becoming publicly known.
3) In the early 2000's, Bush, the repukes, and the dumbocrap enablers in Congress drastically reduced the auditing budget of the IRS.
And most of us can't afford their fancy schmancy tax lawyers.
Don't you love how for Pooper and his ilk, the government sucks at everything they do and every government agency should be shut down so the private sector can finally get on with it and do a better, less "governmenty", reduce my taxes job of it ... right up until it's necessary to defend Mittens and his tax returns? Pooper actually said .. and I quote ... "I trust the IRS." Good lord.
Yeah, Republicans believe in their souls that government can't do anything right, with two exceptions: the IRS leaving the rich alone, and all death penalties only ever are given to the guilty.
So the msm keeps asking about obamas Birth/Cert.for 4 years , but they get bored asking for mitts tax returns in 3 weeks , go figure ...They need to question everything about the university professor and lawyer , but they give a pass to the GOP wall st snake oil salesman
America and its universities need to come up with an official stamp of aproval between corporate media , and the official free press sighted in the constitution , because it is a complete joke as it stands now
And Mitt is planning to release his 2011 taxes just in time for the final Presidential debate in October. Which is supposed to be about foreign policy.
Perhaps he is planning to issue a statement condemning our defense of free speech at the embassy in the Cayman Islands???
When RoMoney was defending his residency in MA (while actually living in Utah) so he could run for Guv, he stated he filed his income tax return from MA (supposedly, he was living in the basement of his son's house - Yeah, I believe that).
When asked to release his tax return to prove it, his response was "Trust me" (sound familiar?). But was ordered to show the return but could redact the financial info - Lo and Behold, he had actually filed his return from a residence in Utah (because he was living there?). So he filed an amended return and then was able to run for MA Guv. He got away with it anyway.
I believe there are sooooo many reasons he doesn't want his tax returns released. The Swiss bank account and amnesty; filing from addresses but declaring residency somewhere else; tithing less than a tithe; paying low rates; taking advantage of each and every loophole (while not illegal could be deemed unethical in lots of cases) and having us find out just where his investments are and how his policies (the secret ones) will affect those investments - or more likely how those investments will influence those secret policies!
I had to show 3 years of tax returns just to refi my mortgage for a lower rate with my present mortgagor!!
I'm hoping he gets slammed and slammed again in the debates about this issue. It will return and will not go away. I see it every day on Twitter; we just have to keep the pressure on and somehow motivate the press or at least keep circulating these stories like
Keep these and others circulating.
I hope that the prez nails him hard on this disclosure during the debate(s). I hope that Biden nails Ryan hard on this issue at their debate.
Too many americans are being fed all kinds of misinformation. If this trend continues it can be disastrous for our country.
wait if Romney gave years worth of tax returns in 2008 as part of the VP vetting process to Mccain. Are they not now public record and can be research by the freedom of information act?
Unfortunately no. Those records are handed over on the condition they remain private and both sides do that. Only an individual can reveal their own tax records.
I've been observing politics with interest since the early 1960s - yes I'm geeky, and apparently I was "born that way". :D I was into watching the news even when I was in kindergarten, when other kids were mostly into cartoons (not that I didn't enjoy those, too). Probably my earliest, albeit somewhat confused, "political" memory was watching Jack Ruby assassinate Oswald live on TV (I was home that day), and confusing it in my mind with the Presidential assassination the previous day. I ran screaming from the room for my mother - "Mommy, mommy - they shot him again! They shot the President again!" I'm sure she must have assumed that I'd just seen a news report or something - I can only imagine how freaked out she must have been when she realized what I actually had seen. And still she couldn't manage to keep me from watching news shows along with the "kid stuff". I really was "born that way", I guess.
Another early political memory is of having pitched schoolyard "battles" - must've been in the third grade - between kids supporting Humphrey (my side) and those supporting Nixon (boo, hiss). Obviously, few, if any, of us had a particularly sophisticated understanding of the issues, although I still loved to watch the news and felt like I had some reasonable sense of what was going on. I'm sure most of us probably just parroted what we were hearing at home.
So, I have seen campaigns come and I have seen them go, but I don't think I can ever remember a candidate who had this much of a "talent" for stepping on his own pecker at every opportunity... not that I'm not grateful that he does.
I demand to see the long-form worth certificates!
Vulture/Voucher 2012
Proving Two Rights DO Make a Wrong!
;-)
So that's why he has brain damage!!!
As a Canadian I can not understand why more people aren't demanding to know about these tax issues. Why is it so hard to figure out the tax loopholes he used; look it up. Also why would the tax amnesty be so difficult to show ?? I believe that is reallyy what he is hiding. Larry Flynt should have the reward on a website like the one done for the bullied school bus monitor. Eventually some one with true knowledge would come forward for the money. Remember Nixon and deep throat.....What a truly despicable candidate this man makes. I am glad to live in Canada.
For better or worse, we US citizens have found better reasons to pay attention to for not letting Mr. Romney be our President - he would be a disaster waiting to happen overseas. Tax returns are a bit moot when you have this klutz THAT CLOSE to the nuclear 'football'. Make sure you vote for adults November 6.
(Mitt Romney mumbles to himself, saying he will use that 'Mormon' mind trick his campaign manager said to use...)
Mitt: You don't need to see those tax returns you are looking for... (waves his hand)
Mitt: You can go about your business... (waves his hand)
Mitt: Move along... (waves his hand)
(Mitt realizes it isn't working, alerts his advisor)
Mitt's campaign advisor: I said 'Jedi' mind trick!
Democrats are so desperate to find something in the tax returns. They have 2010 returns, what's in them that's a problem? Anything? Where are Obama's college records? Who are Obama's friends? Who wrote Obama's books? When did Obama change his name from Barry Soetoro to Barrack Obama? Anyone know? Romney is a success, Obama is a failure.
If there is something there, report to the IRS your concerns. Look at Obama's tax returns or better, Biden's returns -- Romney is VERY generous with his money, Biden is a miser, a pauper a loser.
Democrats really need to snap out of their constant whining about Romney. If he loses, fine, if he wins, start looking for a therapist. You may be too far gone to be cured, but democrats will be suffering from Post Obama Syndrome.
Amen, HROC!!! Everyone is so concerned about his tax records, implying that because he doesnt show them, that somehow he is hiding something earth-shattering. Why don't the dems apply this same line of reasoning to their beloved Obama. Where are his college transcripts? Oh, wait, he spent millions of dollars to seal them. How does one come up with that kind of money on a "community organizer" salary? Whats so damaging in those records that he would go to the ends of the earth to seal them. I think Mitt should propose to release his tax returns, only when Obama releases his transcripts.