Originally Posted By skinnerbox <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/08/12/paul-ryan-tax-returns_n_1770915.html?utm_hp_ref=politics" target="_blank">http://www.huffingtonpost.com/...politics</a> <> Paul Ryan Says He'll Only Release 2 Years Of Tax Returns In '60 Minutes' Interview Posted: 08/12/2012 8:42 pm Updated: 08/13/2012 10:22 am WASHINGTON -- Presumptive vice presidential nominee Paul Ryan said on Sunday that while he turned over "several years" of tax returns to the Romney campaign during his vetting process, he would only make two years of tax returns public for voters. The Wisconsin Republican, appearing alongside Romney on "60 Minutes" for their first joint media interview, seemed poised and assured throughout the 15-minute segment. When pressed with a question about tax returns -- a topic that has dogged Romney -- Ryan had a ready answer. "It was a very exhaustive vetting process," he told CBS's Bob Schiefer. "It is a confidential vetting process. So there were several years. But I'm going to release the same amount of years that Governor Romney has. But I got to tell you Bob -- two, I'm going to be releasing two, which is what he's releasing -– what I hear from people around this country, they are not asking, 'Where are the tax returns,' they are asking where the jobs are? Where is the economic growth?" Romney, in fact, has not yet released two years of tax returns. He released his 2010 return (with some elements missing) and an estimate for 2011. The campaign has said that a full 2011 return will be made public before the election. The issue of tax fairness dominated the 60 Minutes interview with Schiefer repeatedly questioning whether a Romney-Ryan administration would level the progressivity of the tax code. While the CBS host never mentioned it, under Ryan's proposed budget, Romney would have paid an effective tax rate of 0.82 percent in 2010, according to the Atlantic. For his part, Romney insisted he would continue to require the wealthy to pick up the heaviest burden. "Fairness dictates that the highest-income people should pay the greatest share of taxes, and they do," Romney said. "And the commitment that I've made is we will not have the top income earners in this country pay a smaller share of the tax burden. The highest-income people will continue to pay the largest share of the tax burden and middle-income taxpayers, under my plan, get a break. Their taxes come down." At one point, Ryan interrupted the man who had just made him the presumptive vice presidential nominee. "What we are saying is: Take away the tax shelters that are uniquely enjoyed by people in the top tax brackets," he said, "so they can't shelter as much money from taxation, so that you can lower tax rates for everybody to make America more competitive." It was a fairly straightforward overview of tax reform: Eliminate the loopholes and use those savings to lower rates across the board. But it was also a bit awkward. Just last week, new questions were raised over the role Romney played in using the tax shelter Son of Boss while heading up the audit committee of the Marriott hotel empire in the 1990s. Democrats quickly seized on the tax return question. Danny Kanner, a spokesman for the Obama campaign, blasted out an email after the interview aired: "If Mitt Romney needed to examine several years of tax returns to determine whether Paul Ryan was qualified to be Vice President, why won’t he let the American people see his own returns and determine if he himself is qualified to be President?" <> I'm not particularly surprised by this move, but not for the reasons most would think. Thanks to the data mining folk over at opensecrets.org, the following information has been discovered about Paul Ryan's insider trading in Sept 2008 before the bank meltdown crisis began: <a href="http://www.the-richmonder.com/2012/08/paul-ryan-traded-on-insider-information.html" target="_blank">http://www.the-richmonder.com/...ion.html</a> <> Saturday, August 11, 2012 Paul Ryan traded on insider information to avoid 2008 crash It should probably come as no surprise to anyone that someone like Paul Ryan would trade on inside information gained through his position as a congressman to line his pockets, but this particular instance is especially egregious. Ryan attended a closed meeting with congressional leaders, Bush's Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke on September 18, 2008. The purpose of the meeting was to disclose the coming economic meltdown and beg Congress to pass legislation to help collapsing banks. Instead of doing anything to help, Ryan left the meeting and on that very same day Paul Ryan sold shares of stock he owned in several troubled banks and reinvested the proceeds in Goldman Sachs, a bank that the meeting had disclosed was not in trouble. This is the guy Republicans want one heartbeat away from the presidency? He seems more than a little shady to me. <> The Richmonder article has also provided images of Ryan's financial disclosure form for 2008 for verification. Ryan's tax returns for 2008 are not going to be released because Team Romney doesn't want the public to know how this joker personally profited on confidential information he was privy to as a member of Congress. Un-freakin-believable.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Ryan won't release his forms because Romney won't. I hope they keep getting asked about this, because voters have the right to know where the two of them made their money.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan And if you're a conservative, imagine if Ted Kennedy were alive and running for president today. Can you imagine the uproar if he decided that no one needed to know about his finances?
Originally Posted By DyGDisney >>>Ryan won't release his forms because Romney won't<<< Exactly what I was thinking. It would make Romney look pretty bad if Ryan was willing to release all of his tax records.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Politically, Ryan really couldn't release more than 2 years, if you think about it. If he released more than that, it instantly begs the question of why Romney won't, even for people who don't pay a lot of attention. But skinnerbox is correct that it's awfully convenient that 2008 won't be in there for him.
Originally Posted By SingleParkPassholder Ryan's only 42. He's held political office since he was 28. How does he get to be a millionaire within 14 years without utilizing inside information?
Originally Posted By Tikiduck Ryan has never held a job in the real world, it has either been cushy "positions" in a family business, or brown nosing his way up the political ladder. Another detached Republican with no clue to what the average citizen has to deal with in the game of life. It will be a pleasure voting against these Plutocratic creeps.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 Both Romney and Ryan are children of privilege, with a certain entitled attitude that many children of privilege get unless their families really install a sense of social responsibility in them, a la the Roosevelts, say. Neither Obama nor Biden is a child of privilege, and it shows.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan >>How does he get to be a millionaire within 14 years<< Maybe he's got himself one of those Romney IRAs?
Originally Posted By EdisYoda Sorry, you can't have one.... that would make the top 1% the top 1.1%. We can't have that now, can we!
