Wilard's Taxes

++This week saw an escalation in the demands that Willard Romney release more tax returns than he has. Romney said that people (roughly 2/3rds of the public) were "small-minded" asking him about his taxes when the country was faced with such major issues.

++But the issue of taxes and Romney has been around his whole political career. Rachel Maddow did an excellent segment of how the Romney for Governor campaign asked people to trust him when he said he had not listed his residence as Utah. Of course, he eventually "retroactively" changed his returns to claim his residence in Massachusetts. So why, indeed, should we trust him now.

++Romney finally answered the question that had been asked him two weeks before whether he ever paid less than 13.9% on his taxes. He said he never paid less than 13.% and that doesn't include his giving to charity would bring it to 20%. Of course, charity donations do not count as taxes and actually bring it down.

++So the tax rate for so-called "job creators", which Romney claims he is one, is confiscatory. I guess I would think 13% is like paying no taxes but who am I?

++The big Tell with the Romneys is that they never say federal income taxes. Sure they pay property taxes, sales taxes and other taxes like the rest of us. But we never hear the word "income taxes".

++Now Romney thinking he was clever demanded that Harry Reid come across with his source. Reid responded that we don't know whether Romney in fact is telling the truth so he should release the taxes.

++The Obama campaign asked Romney to release five years of taxes and not the 10 years that had demanded and said they would call it a truce. The Romney campaign turned it down calling this issue a distraction. 

++Ann Romney appearing on national television said that everything Mitt had done--she didn't specify--was legal. She claimed that the more they released the more questions people asked. Yeah, well, overseas bank accounts provoke such questions. She said that there would be no more tax releases because it only gives ammunition to the other side. 

++The Obama campaign has started a letter campaign to demand more tax returns. They note that there are inconsistencies in the one tax return release, the 401-K Plan that has $100 million and the foreign bank accounts.

++The lack of a 990-T Form on his 2010 return suggests that Romney took advantage of the IRS amnesty of Americans who have Swiss bank accounts. If so, it means that Romney admitted to a felony but has an amnesty for it. 

++Others suggest that his 401-K with the $100 million is held abroad as a way to hedge against the dollar. 

++What is clear is that Mitt Romney used every tax dodge in the book--which is of course legal and used by the uber wealthy--but it also demonstrates how corrupted our economic system has become. Romney is a poster boy for the very problems that led to the 2008 global collapse of the economic system.

++Meanwhile his sidekick Mr. Voucher released his tax returns but a problem surfaced. Paul Ryan neglected to list on his financial disclosure form for Congress his trust fund that is worth from $1 million to $5 million. His father built the family business by procuring government contracts during Ike's term to build the nation's roads. 

++The best rumor to today is that the Koch Brothers' $100 million contribution to Romney's SuperPac was contingent on Romney picking Paul Ryan, whom Romney really didn't know. The stories of rapport and love of data is another fiction you are to believe.