Warring Over Tax Returns
WASHINGTON — Mitt Romney’s defiant secrecy about his personal finances looks like a cross Republicans will have to bear all the way to Election Day. To put it mildly, the burden seems to chafe.
Apoplexy is not the tone politicians generally seek to project. Yet there was GOP chief Reince Priebus on ABC’s “This Week,” calling Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a “dirty liar” for his claim about how little Romney may have paid in taxes. There was Sen. Lindsey Graham, R-S.C., on CNN’s “State of the Union,” saying of Reid, “I think he’s lying.” There was Virginia Gov. Bob McDonnell on CBS’ “Face the Nation,” decrying a “reckless and slanderous charge by Harry Reid.”
It was a coordinated Sunday morning display of righteous indignation, a pageant of scenery-chewing. But in making such a show of denouncing Dirty Harry’s foul calumny, all Republicans succeeded in doing was draw attention to Romney’s stubborn refusal to release more than a year’s worth of tax returns — and guarantee more coverage of Reid’s claims.
Reid was a boxer in his youth, and what he did to Romney was the equivalent of a head butt. He claimed to have a “source” — someone who had business with Bain Capital, the private-equity firm Romney ran — who told him Romney paid no federal income taxes for 10 years.
Who is this alleged source? Reid won’t say. It’s reasonable to question whether the source even exists, much less whether he or she would be in a position to know what’s in those tax forms Romney is so reluctant to reveal. It’s understandable that the GOP candidate and his surrogates would accuse Reid of an unfair attack.
But they can’t prove it’s an untrue attack unless Romney does what conservative commentators and Republican insiders have been urging: Release the tax returns, as Americans have expected of every presidential candidate since, well, since Romney’s father set the standard in 1968.
“His poor father must be so embarrassed about his son,” Reid said, referring to George Romney’s decision to release a dozen years’ worth of tax returns for public inspection.
That was the equivalent of rubbing salt into the wound opened by the head butt.
If Reid is being as cynical and mendacious as Republicans charge, Romney could demolish the majority leader’s credibility — and put the whole issue to rest — with a single phone call instructing his accountant to release the returns. “I have paid taxes every year. A lot of taxes. A lot of taxes,” he said. But he still won’t make that call.
He also told Reid to “put up or shut up,” which is comical. Romney is the one holding the tax returns, not Reid. Only the candidate can “put up” — and he steadfastly refuses to do so.
Romney did release his 2010 tax return, and he promises to release the 2011 return when it is completed. No recent presidential candidate has tried to get away with such meager disclosure.
In 2010, Romney paid a tax rate of 13.9 percent on income of $21.6 million. The most affluent wage-earners pay income tax at a rate of 35 percent, but Romney, whose net worth has been estimated at $250 million, earned most of his money from investments and thus pays the lower rate for capital gains.
Asked last week whether there had been years when he paid less than 13.9 percent, Romney said he would be “happy to go back and look” at his records. So far, however, the campaign has declined to provide an answer. Romney must still be looking.
What strikes you as more improbable: That Harry Reid actually has a mysterious source with intimate knowledge of Romney’s finances? Or that a man who made a quarter of a billion dollars from his skill at reading balance sheets has no clue of how much he’s been paying in taxes?
Neither, on its face, sounds terribly likely. But Reid isn’t running for president — and doesn’t even have to run for re-election until 2016, assuming he chooses to do so.
Romney could dramatically boost his credibility by opening his personal books to the normal degree of public scrutiny. The fact that he won’t — even when continued secrecy clearly hurts the campaign, if only by diverting attention from other issues Romney would rather be talking about — clearly means there’s something embarrassing, inappropriate or just plain ugly in there.
You don’t need a secret source to tell you that. Common sense will do.
Eugene Robinson’s email address is eugenerobinson@washpost.com. (c) 2012, Washington Post Writers Group
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I saw a great quote on this topic from the satirical Mrs. Betty Bowers:
“Funny how people who haven’t seen Mitt’s tax returns are calling Harry Reid a liar, while John McCain, who has seen them, isn’t.”
McCain’s aide, however made this statment:
["Schmidt viewed 23 years of Romney’s tax returns when McCain requested them as part of the vice presidential vetting process and said they were extremely complex.
Romney's tax returns "do not look anything like the average American," but held nothing which prevented him from being on the ticket.]
McCain also was a wealthy man and 48 million people decided that wealth would not affect their vote. McCain also only released 2 years, like Mr. Romney, while Clinton and Obama released 8 years. There might be a problem in the 2008 and 2009 returns, or there might be a problem with Mr. Romney’s secrecy complex.
To The_Ohioan,
Its true that having wealth has never disqualified an American candidate in the eyes of the American People, and personally, I don’t care if his wife is into competitive dressage horses–the Kennedy’s also were from a background of privilege and must have spent a pretty penny on purchasing and racing their many sail boats. So, the fact that Romney is wealthy is not what’s holding him back and sabotaging his credibility on this issue.
What majority Senate leader Senator Reid has done, could also be compared to a “check” move made in chess. While Reid has little at stake, he has forced Romney into a corner, but, one that providing more of his tax returns, would easily help him escape from. His refusal to do so, only jeopardizes his political credibility all the more.
Most American’s also have nothing against complex tax returns, and, it would be unrealistic to expect someone of Romney’s wealth and the way it was earned, not to have complex computations involved. But,myself, and many other voters, can only wonder why he refuses to reveal them?
In the wake of the 2008 recession, most voters have become aware that many wealthy executives deliberately took actions with other peoples money, that jeopardized the entire system. So, we need to know that Romney’s ethical compass is not pointing in the same direction as many of these executives who did many reprehensible things like betting against their own Companies, while not even caring about the damages that they caused.
Republicans repeatedly claim that only Obama really wants to raise taxes on Americans, but conveniently leave out the fact that Democrats want to increase taxes on only WEALTHY American’s. If the GOP succeeds in extending the Bush tax cuts, what have they done but find another way to keep THEIR taxes low–not those of the middle class?
What is really important to most voters in these difficult times is not if Romney has done everything legally (he undoubtedly has) but rather is he is really qualified as someone who cares about the plight of the middle class! Every day that he continues to bluff by refusing to me more transparent,is another day that works against his campaign.
Republican’s have repeatedly decried the fact that the President has allegedly not released a budget, but independent accountants and the CBO have, on several occasions, evaluated his plans to increase taxes on upper income earners while also making strategic cuts in spending. So,why have Republicans remained so secretive about discussing anything that might actually raise revenues while simultaneously making much needed cuts?
The recent analysis of Republican economic policies by non-partisan sources has, even when using the most “progressive” and middle class friendly scenarios, determined that Republican’s will raise the average taxes on a middle class household by 2000 dollars a year. It also affirms that wealthy households will, indeed, end up paying much less.
Since all Romney needs to to in order to end this “check” that he’s in, is to comply with requests to release more of his tax records, he is effectively risking a “check mate,” in the eyes of middle class voters. He will probably continue to dance around the issue, hoping most voters will forget, or, believe that he has a right to be outraged. This may minimize any damages done, but, It will never make the issue completely go away!
Note: That aide did not say Romney paid ANY tax, so Reid could be on to something.
So he made bit political charge for which he can provide no evidence. Even Democratic commentators can say for sure it is true. But it isn’t that bad because “you can’t prove it is untrue” and that is enough to justify pushing the tax issue on Romney.
The sad thing is that the GOP is no better. It is sad that our standards should have fallen so low that lack of proof of deliberate wrong doing should be enough. It is a mystery why any would think that unsubstantiated allegations by partisans should even make the news.
There was much more of an uproar over Obama’s birth certificate than the Republicans are making over Romney’s refusal to release his tax information.
Also many Republicans feel that taxes are too high and that if Romney didn’t pay income tax, because he used loopholes, etc., then Romney’s refusal to release his tax forms is not a sin.
The race between Obama and Romney is tight as it is, and most people have already decided one way or another whether about their support (or lack of) because of the tax issue.
Reid’s tactic of claiming Romney did not pay any taxes for a period of time may only sway a small number of people, but in a tight race a small number of people means victory of defeat.
The Democratic Party could “lose” this fight if independents were turned off by Reid’s claims (and future claims made by others). However independent voters (some, not all) are interested in the question. And Romney is clearly hiding something.
The fact that the former McCain staffer said there was nothing in his tax returns to keep Romney off the ticket is interesting. McCain had only released a couple years of tax returns himself, so McCain’s judgment on taxes is already shaky. And we have to remember that McCain thought Palin was VP material, too. So his whole judgment is off, not just around taxes. I wonder if the McCain staffer was using McCain’s judgment (Romney’s taxes are fine) or if the staffer himself thinks the average American would truly be satisfied with Romney’s tax information and business dealings in those returns.
Reid didn’t issue his statement to sway any voters. He did it specifically to put very public pressure on Romney to release his returns, because Reid knows like all of us that Romney will suffer once everyone sees that he in fact paid less than 15% on his substantial income. Upon seeing this, even conservatives will start to ask, how come he gets all these tax shelters and breaks and I don’t? There will be a spotlight on the “Class Warfare” that has been stealthily waged long before Obama threatened the Bush tax cuts and THAT is what will sway votes in favor of democrats.