Originally Posted By TomSawyer <a href="http://i.imgur.com/RsI9t.gif" target="_blank">http://i.imgur.com/RsI9t.gif</a>
Originally Posted By 182 boy you had to wait a while to post that. Lets see if you do after the debates. President Obama can't hide from his record there.
Originally Posted By DyGDisney I'm expecting the President's polls to jump up after the primaries. You can't hide stupidity, lies and flip-flopping from the American public forever. Can't wait!
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan Speaking of hiding things, how's Mitt doing on releasing his taxes? When does that happen? Ryan too?
Originally Posted By TomSawyer Ryan already released 10 years of his taxes to Romney. because it's important to know what the financial record of someone you're putting in a job like that is. But of course Romney won't release his records for an even more important job. Because Romney has one set of rules for him and one set for everyone else.
Originally Posted By Dabob2 To be fair, Romney did release 20 years or so of his records to McCain 4 years ago. But he has made the calculated decision that there's something in his older records that will damage him more politically with the great unwashed public than the damage he's sustaining by not releasing them (which is considerable). I don't know what it is, but it must be a doozy.
Originally Posted By Jim in Merced CA Taxes, schmaxes. We all know Romney's richer than rich. What would we learn from the release of his tax returns? That he uses every loophole that he possibly can to get every break he possibly can? How is this different than any other rich person in America who makes piles and piles of money and pays very little in taxes? I think Romney is a weasel, but I don't give a rip about his tax returns. I already know what they look like!
Originally Posted By Dabob2 See, that's exactly why I think it's got to be something worse than just paying a ridiculously low rate. We already know that about 2010. If that's all it was for the other years, he'd release them already. They'd be greeted with a shrug. A disgusted shrug perhaps, but a shrug. It's got to be something else he's hiding.
Originally Posted By Goofyernmost >>>Taxes, schmaxes. We all know Romney's richer than rich. What would we learn from the release of his tax returns? That he uses every loophole that he possibly can to get every break he possibly can? How is this different than any other rich person in America who makes piles and piles of money and pays very little in taxes? I think Romney is a weasel, but I don't give a rip about his tax returns. I already know what they look like!<<< Have I lost my mind or has that particular argument come up before. In the last campaign maybe? I don't really know, but I know I heard it before. I'm being serious here, not sarcastic. I'm having déjà vieux all over again.
Originally Posted By TomSawyer What could we find out? That he committed voter fraud by claiming residency in Massachusetts when he didn't actually lived in California. (That's a felony, by the way.) Here's what the Guardian said: "In April 2009, Romney sold his longtime Massachusetts home at 171 Marsh Street and appeared to move to La Jolla, California. He did not own a home in Massachusetts again until July 2010. (All of the Massachusetts addresses discussed here end with "Belmont, MA 02478", though one might amuse oneself surmising which address is underneath the Sharpie by the length of the redaction.) • Sometime in 2009, probably late in the year, Romney filed his 2008 tax return, identifying the address where he lived at the time of filing. He has refused to disclose a copy of that return. • Sometime in or shortly before January 2010 – that is, not long after he filed his 2008 return – Romney registered to vote in Massachusetts, stating on his voter registration form that he lived in his son Tagg's basement at 18 Greensbrook Way. In January 2010, Romney voted in Massachusetts' special election, which would be a felony if he was not a Massachusetts resident at the time." There could also be evidence that he wasn't legally eligible to run for governor of Massachusetts. It isn't about his income - it's about where he lived and whether or not he committed voting fraud, property tax fraud, and/or election fraud. I don't think he's worried about people finding out how much he's worth. I think he's just worried about people finding out how much character he has.
Originally Posted By skinnerbox My money is on the amnesty program for Swiss bank accounts: <a href="http://talkingpointsmemo.com/archives/2012/07/experts_best_guesses_on_romneys_swiss_bank_account_1.php" target="_blank">http://talkingpointsmemo.com/a...nt_1.php</a> <> Experts’ Best Guesses On Romney’s Swiss Bank Account Renewed interest in Mitt Romney’s now-closed Swiss bank account has created a parlor game among experts and political junkies who would love to know why on Earth Romney had a Swiss bank account in the first place, and whether he paid taxes to the U.S. government on the money and interest in a timely manner. Romney’s unwillingness to disclose more information about his finances has fueled speculation that Romney used the account to hide money from the IRS, and may have even had to avail himself of an amnesty program that allowed U.S. owners of certain Swiss bank accounts to come clean to the government without facing legal recriminations. (The Romney camp is now specifically denying that his UBS account was connected to the IRS investigation and the amnesty program.) But even if Romney paid his taxes as required, the question becomes, Why would a person with national political ambitions open himself to the political risks associated with having a Swiss bank account in the first place? Plus there’s another hitch: Why run the risk for an account that was relatively small? It was opened on behalf of Ann Romney’s blind trust in 2003, held about $3 million, and generated a mere $1,700 of interest in 2010. Big bucks for ordinary folks, but not for Romney. High risk/low reward isn’t exactly Mitt’s style personally or professionally. So what gives? Tax experts I’ve been talking to have some interesting — and plausible — theories about how Romney found himself in this mess. Emphasis on “theories.” Theory #1: Romney was actually helping some of Bain’s foreign investors avoid U.S. taxes and scrutiny — not himself. One expert on tax strategies employed by high-net-worth individuals like Romney speculated that the purpose of the Swiss bank account was to protect foreign investors seeking to do business with Bain Capital from paying U.S. taxes. “My instinct on this has been that the foreign accounts probably grew out of Bain business deals in which they were handling investments for foreign investors in a manner that guaranteed the foreign investors that they would not become connected to a U.S. business or otherwise subject to US tax (or IRS intrusiveness),” this expert told me. “If that was the case, then maybe he left his money overseas to put into new investments. Otherwise the question is why Romney thought a foreign bank was better able to meet his needs that a US bank — especially when all the big foreign banks have branches in New York,” the expert said. “n the modern world, the is nothing legitimate that a foreign bank can do for a U.S. citizen that a New York bank cannot do just as well,” the expert added. “So, my best [guess] on this is Bain got him in a foreign bank, and he did not want to sever ties with the Bain world, or he failed to think about the political implications.” Theory #2: Romney and his financial advisers lost track of the Swiss account. I know that sounds implausible but stay with me here. Theory #1 would explain the account’s origins. And if Romney paid taxes on the account when due, as he now claims, then it would moot concerns that he was hiding money from the IRS. But then why did his trustee keep the account until 2010, through an initial run for the presidency in 2007 and 2008, right up until he entered the 2012 GOP primary? And if everything was on the up and up legally, it doesn’t really explain why he’s been so reluctant with information about the account itself Daniel Shaviro — a tax expert at NYU who’s been documenting and explaining Romney’s tax strategies — floats this theory: What if Romney’s wealth empire is so vast that his money managers simply overlooked the trivial interest he earned on this account until the federal government came knocking at UBS’ door. “Obviously, no one would use a Swiss bank account primarily in order to avoid U.S. tax on one’s interest income, at so low a rate of return,” Shaviro told me. “You might have a case where the tax guys in his operation weren’t consulted on the Swiss bank account, since it wasn’t done for tax reasons, and didn’t learn about or at least prioritize it.” “[H]e was earning relatively trivial interest from the account. … This suggests to me that the interest may have been a side issue, and not have gotten the serious attention that he and his people no doubt gave to the [Individual Retirement Account], the Caymans entities, etcetera,” Shaviro speculates. Whatever Romney’s investment team may or may not have been telling his tax team, presumably at some point his political team got wind of the Swiss bank account and recognized how damaging it could be to his presidential ambitions. But because Romney has refused to release more information about his finances, answers to questions about his wealth, and particularly about this one account, are black boxed. That’s left him vulnerable to a slow drip of dark-toned speculation from his political enemies. As the experts I’ve spoken to suggest, there could be less nefarious explanations that place Romney on the right side of the law — but still expose to public scrutiny the tax avoidance schemes Romney used and that are only available to the very wealthiest Americans. <>
Originally Posted By MissCandice Yeah, Romney released his tax returns to McCain when he was being vetted for being a possible VP and McCain took that information and made his choice for VP: the wonderfully unqualified Sarah Palin.
Originally Posted By utahjosh <a href="http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/09/14/watch-glenn-reveals-the-real-mitt-romney/" target="_blank">http://www.glennbeck.com/2012/...-romney/</a> Read it. Think whatever you want.
Originally Posted By ecdc Holy crap! Glenn Beck does an amazing job kicking the crap out of that strawman! Josh, this is exactly what I was talking about earlier. Beck sets up a false scenario (the media is digging up nothing but nasty dirt on Romney) and now he's going to share the real story about this decent man. He'll pull back the curtain and show you the truth. But...when has any reasonable person said Mitt Romney was a monster who would give a drowning man a glass of water? Josh, I have no doubt these stories are genuine. I have no doubt Mitt Romney is capable of great generosity. But are you somehow suggesting they negate the other reality we know, that Mitt Romney laid off people to make money? That he saddled companies with debt to make money? That he off-shored bank accounts to avoid paying taxes? Josh, try responding to what people here are saying, instead of going along with Glenn Beck's ridiculous strawman and acting like this is something helpful. Here's some genuine questions, Josh, that have been discussed here many times: What's your response to Mitt's refusal to release his tax returns, and the argument made by George Will that what's in the returns must be worse than the cost of not releasing them? What's your response to Matt Taibbi's Rolling Stone article that carefully details Mitt's ability to create debt in order to make himself money? What's your response to Judy Dushku's interview that discusses her time in Romney's congregation and her interaction with him? What's your response to Mitt's attack, now widely criticized by those on the left and right, on President Obama and his lie that the administration sided with the attackers in Libya that killed an American ambassador? Responding with a bunch of feel-good stories showing Mitt doesn't hate anyone doesn't answer any of these questions.
Originally Posted By Kar2oonMan I don't think Josh is interested in watching, reading or considering anything at all negative about Romney. He's tuned out to all of that at this point. But just in case he's interested, here's a nice piece explaining how nasty what he did last week was. <a href="http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-character-comes-light-dark-indeed-053402865.html" target="_blank">http://news.yahoo.com/romneys-...865.html</a>
Originally Posted By skinnerbox <<What's your response to Mitt's refusal to release his tax returns, and the argument made by George Will that what's in the returns must be worse than the cost of not releasing them?>> This is the main point that Romney supporters continue to dodge/ignore/pretend doesn't exist. Romney required all of his VP potentials to submit 10 years of tax returns. But he refuses to show Americans the same consideration and only releases two. He is obviously hiding something truly terrible that would kill his chances outright. I'm guessing Harry Reid got wind of the truth from his fellow Mormon business leaders and Romney hasn't paid taxes for years.
