What is Romney hiding?

""In the political environment that exists today, the opposition research of
the Obama campaign is looking for anything they can use to distract from the
failure of the president to reignite our economy," Romney told the conservative
National Review Online."  Reuters

------------------------------------

This implies that there is something to be found in the returns, something "wonderful"  (2010 reference). 

My guess is that whatever it is frightens the Romney campaign, not because it is illegal but rather because it is a killer politically.

Posibilities:

-  There were years in which he paid no federal income tax on a net basis.

-  His tithing to the LDS church is enormous.

-  His tax shelters overseas are reflective of a totally ideological devotion to unregulated capitalism.

-  A tax strategy that makes Romney look like one of the "sharks" in "Shark Tank."

Or - whatever.  pl  

http://www.reuters.com/article/2012/07/18/us-usa-campaign-idUSBRE86G10D20120718

Comments

[Fred]

I am curious as to how he managed to get $100 million in an IRA account as was report on CNN. What did he do, put all the Bain stock in at 'nominal' value and never pay a dime on capital gains taxes? Talk about a predatory capitalist. I'd like a leader on my side not one out just for himself.

[r whitman]

You got to love the political entertainment season. Next they will be calling eachother "communists" or "bigamists" or some other "ists".

In the words of the comedian Yakov Smirnoff "is this a great country or what"

[steve g]

It would seem the Dems are taking
a page out of Rove's playbook.
Attack and attack some more. A payback
for the 2004 Swift Boating of Kerry?
Someone mentioned if Rove is upset
the strategy must be working.

[alnval]

Col. Lang:

I love the "whatever" part. There's got to be a pony in there somewhere! Right?

[Jose]

Exactly! lol

[Jose]

stve g. it's not working. BHO is drooping in the real clear politics average of polls. Does fire up his base which something he lacks right now.

Fred, forgot to add stock options at $2k per year, then exercise the options tax free. Does anyone know if it's Roth or regular IRA?

Devils advocate, why didn't BHO pass a banking reform bill that really dealt with mess we currently have now? Could the fact that most of his investments are tied to JP Morgan have some influence?

[Medicine Man]

Yeah, it is pure "Rovian" politics. Attack your opponent's perceived point strengths. I suspect the Colonel is right though; there is probably nothing illegal in Romney's tax returns, just enough things that are impolitic that Mitt doesn't want to spend the next month defending them.

[Robert c]

If it were just entertainment, Romney would end it and release his taxes.

RC

[TWV]

Why should any of these things be any more damning than a candidate who:
Has a history of cocaine use,
sealed his college transcripts,
had a pastor who regularly damned the United States
and who has never held a job?

[Lars]

If Mitt Romney did not know that the day when he had to show many years of tax returns would come, he is probably not qualified to be POTUS. He has certainly backed himself into a corner with this by now, feeding a speculation frenzy that will only increase the longer he refuses to come clean about his personal finances.

Well, John McCain thought a nutcase from Alaska would be a better VP choice than Romney and that does not help him either.

[Medicine Man]

Because all of those accusations about Obama have already come out 4 years ago and he is defined in the public consciousness.

[Jackie]

TWV did you previously post here under the name "Tim Vincent"? Your low opinion of Obama seems familiar.

[VietnamVet]

Colonel,

One of my biggest pet peeves was the outsourcing of the manufacturing of “Mr. Coffee” to China. My morning coffee was never the same again. Thanks to the Mother Jones Bain Timeline, I now know that this is how Mitt Romney made his Barbados millions.

http://www.motherjones.com/mojo/2012/07/mitt-romney-bain-capital-timeline

I have no choice I have to vote to reelect President Obama; although, it continues the Oligarchs’ corporate rule of the federal government for another four years. Mitt Romney would be even worse. Lockheed Martin is threatening to fire tens of thousands (mostly in Northern Virginia) when Congress jumps off the fiscal cliff at the end of the year. But, this is really unlikely, with Damascus descending into chaos, and only Tehran left.

“Bomb, Bomb, Iran”.

[steve g]

Jose
The strategy is working if it
is getting the pundits upset not
raising BHO poll numbers. As
long as the talking heads are
bloviating the important issues
of state are backgrounded. How
did we turn a silver star winner
and thrice wounded combat veteran
into a person who hates America?
The Chicago Machine is just
getting started IMO. Americans like
politicians that fight back. Kerry
turned the other cheek. Lessons
learned?

[Jose]

Folks, this outsourcing and tax dodging began under Clinton, blame him. lol

steve g - BHO is hurting himself with these attacks, no more hope and change.

[Will Reks]

Well, for one BHO is not anywhere near as anti-Wall Street or anti-capitalism as the right-wing would like to portray him. Second, Congress is even more beholden, on the part of both parties though not equally, to the banking industry. The weak reform bill that that the Democrats were able to pass by a very slim margin is currently being picked apart.

[Fred]

Jose,

Bush gave the ok on the no-strings-attached bank bailout during the lame-duck period following the election and before the inauguration. BHO couldn't get any real reform bill (not that he had one ready) through the House, much less the Senate, after that. As to JP Morgan investments, why would he care? Look how much money Newt Gingrich made after he was booted out by his own party? BHO will be rich enough without having to sell out the country to shore up JP Morgan.

[stanleyhenning]

There more to this question than what is Romny hiding. What are all the politicians hiding and is this going to effect military health care among other things? I would like to point out again that most all our Congress allowed the sub-prime loan fiasco and its related bail outs, not to mention turning their heads when large bonuses were going to key personnel at the same time. Then, in the defense sphere we experienced the thousands dead and wounded along with massive expenditures in the Iraq debacle which could and should have been avoided, etc., etc. Now they are considering the possibility of reducing military retirement and health care benefits to help make up for all this foolishness. This is inexcusable and if the politicians are really serious about caring out such measures they could face serious consequences.

[JerseyJeffersonian]

Another theory as to why Romney has been so coy about revealing his financials has been floated. This one centers around the possibility that he was one of those caught in the Feds' actions against UBS, and that he had availed himself of the amnesty program. So, a presidential candidate who not only had a Swiss bank account, but perhaps one who had this account expressly to conceal income, thus avoiding paying legitimate taxation? Protest as he might about not wanting to pay more taxes than he had to as a ginned-up issue, if he were seen to have been actually ducking paying legitimate taxes? Well, that would be another thing entirely. A link to one poster’s account of this possibility:

http://news.firedoglake.com/2012/07/18/romneys-2010-tax-return-lacks-disclosure-on-swiss-bank-account/
Read more at http://www.nakedcapitalism.com/2012/07/links-71812.html#0r3VWMJeTvgIv6vL.99

Time will tell, perhaps, if this theory has any validity; but if it should turn out to be true (or even if this were to force him to lay out more of his financials tieing him to other damning shenanigans), it'll be a long election season for the Mittster.

[TWV]

"Hope and change" never left the bumper sticker.

[Jose]

Bubba shut down the government, BHO should have done the same if he truly believed in reform. Why are the Bankers still getting huge bonuses under BHO? Why hasn't BHO broken up the banks? Folks, it's the same coin regardless if it lands on head or tails.

[Fred]

Newt Gingrich allowed the government shutdown, he lost his position as house speaker as a result. BHO doesn't control publicly traded companies, those bonuses are voted in by the board of directors. How can BHO legally break up banks?

[Alba Etie]

Leader Congress Critter Cantor voted against raising the debt ceiling then made money when the USG cedit rating was downgraded - what do you call that short selling ? Apparently if one of us 'sheeple' did that we would have been at risk for illegal inside trading. Committe Chairman Spencer Bachus said Congress was here to serve the Banks . Were's our Teddy Roosevelt & Bull Moose Party ?

[steve]

I can't for the life of me understand how Romney thought he could run for the presidency in this day and age without having to make his tax returns public.

Although I believe offshoring of jobs and/or financial shenanigans by the wealthy are truly a cancer on US society, it is immensely hypocritical of Obama to makey political hay of that. Everything Obama has done to date in terms of policy has encouraged and promoted that exact behavior.

[Altoid]

Not to flog a dead thread, but I do want to throw this out, since I've never seen it raised anywhere yet.

How is romney's attitude about his financial life any different than any others among the Masters of the Universe in the finance world? Haven't they all been thin-skinned, over-sensitive, petulant adolescents whenever anyone questions what they do? Haven't they all been certain they've made every penny through their own unaided brilliance? Haven't they all been absolutely certain that the money they make is proof of the social value of what they do, and that the more money they make, the higher the social value?

So maybe it's a mistake to think of W. Mitt as a politician. Maybe he's just a garden-variety Master of the Universe like all those other guys. Just the first of them who expects to do business from the Oval Office. By acclamation, of course.