Drip Drip Drip... Harry Reid Aide: Source On Romney’s Taxes Is A Republican [edit] UPDATE: 7:08 p.m. -- Parra now says he doesn't know whether Reid's source is Republican. In an email to HuffPost, he wrote: "I do not know the party affiliation of the source, how long he invested with Bain, or his relationship to Romney beyond the fact that he was an investor with Bain Capital, as Senator Reid has previously stated."
It's ridiculous the furor over this has died down. Rather insane that a presidential candidate, with possible offshore accounts often linked to nasty tax evasion strategies used by the uber-rich, is not willing to disclose them to prove otherwise, and the media seems reluctant to keep pushing.
Well we do know Romany himself has stated that releasing his returns would end his candidacy. The media needs a story for the next four months instead of talking about the Obama domination.
Basically Romney can't release them. Once people finds out he didn't pay taxes for many years they are going to throw a fit and his campaign is sunk. You know what they say about silence being really telling. McCain could easily clear this up by saying he's seen Mitt's taxes and it's a lie. But he hasn't. Why doesn't McCain say "Harry Reid is lying"? Because he's not
Well, maybe not those exact words. But he has said that if he released them Democrats would poor over them and try to find something to disqualify him. But I think it’s more that he took advantage of an unfair tax system that lets many of the wealthiest taxpayers take advantage of special breaks and loopholes to pay a lower tax rate (or no rate) than many middle-class families. Once Americans see how Romney gamed the system they would recoil in horror and he knows it. That’s why he won’t release them.
It think it won't disqualify him and it won't be illegal. But, if he used current tax law to qualify for a low tax rate, it invalidates his mandate for tax reform. My guess is the money from the Italian deal got laundered through Luxembourg and stashed offshore until the 2009 IRS amnesty allowed him to get legal. And he probably did not tithe the millions that he should have to the church.
I think he is holding back as long as he can so that when he releases the returns from 2007-2008 on (since he knew he would be running for President), the cries for a full decade's worth are more muted. I fully believe that he has cleaned up his act WRT taxes (once he decided to run for President) and that they will be somewhere in the neighborhood of the 15% on the return he already released. So, I think that close to the election, Romney will release back to 2007 or so and say "good enough," knowing that the release back to '01 or '02 would be devastating. He is merely hoping to mute that particular point close enough to the election that he can fend off the calls for a decade's worth of returns until November. I would probably make that the Romney "October surprise," right around when Rocket's training camp starts.
Where is John McCain, where is John McCain? Here I am! Here I am! Did Romney pay taxes, sir? No Comment now thank you Run Away, Run Away
I don't know of anyone in business who makes money, Republican or Democrat, who doesn't run to a CPA to protect as much money as possible from the IRS. Actually, I'd rather have someone who has experience at protecting money to simply and make the tax system more equitable. He knows the money game and has made enough that the system of shelters no longer matters to him. It's the old axiom of "send the thief to stop the other thieves." We see this when the government/private business hires hackers to test their computer systems. As far as donating money to his church and other charitable causes, your assertion is quite Reid-like (no basis in fact). Romney obviously gives vastly more than the Biden the miser -- and probably at least 10 times more than Obama and Biden combined ... even on a pro rata income basis.
You should be careful here. Reid does have a source and it will be revealed at the right time. As Rashmon said: "Remember this in the coming weeks: it is a felony to lie on FEC disclosure forms."
Sen. John McCain said on Tuesday he can "personally vouch" there was nothing disqualifying in the 23 years' worth of tax returns that Mitt Romney submitted to his team in 2008, when he was vetted for a vice presidential spot. "Everything was fine," McCain told reporters on Capitol Hill. "I can personally vouch for the fact that there was nothing in his tax returns that would in any way be disqualifying for him to be a candidate." When pressed about whether Romney might be shielding his returns because he paid no taxes, McCain refused to discuss such specifics. "Please, I am not going to get into that kind of conversation," he said. "All I can tell you, and I can tell you again, is there was nothing disqualifying in his tax returns. And that is a fact." http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/07/17/mitt-romney-tax-returns_n_1680765.html
Even more damning, McCain preferred Palin as his VP pick to Romney... If you're an undecided voter, put aside everything else, and ponder that quote from McCain.
