Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney used the killing of the U.S. Ambassador to Libya and three other Americans by a mob Tuesday as well as an attack on our Embassy in Cairo. Immediately after the first report of the attack on the Embassy around midnight, Romney issued a blistering attack on President Obama.
Also on the anniversary of 9/11, a mob in Cairo breached the grounds of the U.S. Embassy there. Romney doubled down on his political attack this morning blaming Obama for the actions of the mobs in both cities.
He made his political attack before he knew any of the facts including that one of the dead was our Ambassador. He doubled down in a news conference Wednesday morning before the President gave his scheduled statement on the attack. Paul Ryan is expected to add his two cents to the issue today.
Romney is the first presidential candidate to immediately politicize an attack on the United States especially before the bodies of the slain are even cold. Romney’s behavior stands in stark contrast to the way Democrats responded to the 9/11 attack when Bush was President. Democrats and all Americans left politics at the door and mourned the dead Americans. They stood behind President Bush and put our nation first when we were attacked.
Romney’s behavior is totally inappropriate, undignified, insensitive, self serving, and un-statesmanlike. Romney should borrow a line from the German National Anthem as his new campaign slogan. Perhaps it should be: Romney Romney uber alles—Romney Romney above all.
Nothing like jumping in before you know all the facts and then doubling down on your idiotic mistake. Say good night,Mittens
Mitt Romney really stepped in it this time. Using the violent deaths of Americans overseas to attack President Obama, on the anniversary of 9/11 to boot, is even drawing criticism from many Republicans.
And now his campaign is desperately circulating talking points to supporters, to try to deal with the consequences of his crass statements. Expect all of these to immediately start spouting from the right wing media and blogs: Romney Camp Tries to Manage Fallout From Libya Response.
From the “Questions and Answers” section:
Quote :
Questions & Answers:
Don’t you think it was appropriate for the embassy to condemn the controversial movie in question? Are you standing up for movies like this?
— Governor Romney rejects the reported message of the movie. There is no room for religious hatred or intolerance.
— But we will not apologize for our constitutional right to freedom of speech.
— Storming U.S. missions and committing acts of violence is never acceptable, no matter the reason. Any response that does not immediately and decisively make that clear conveys weakness.
— If pressed: Governor Romney repudiated this individual in 2010 when he attempted to mobilize a Quran-burning movement. He is firmly against any expression of religious hatred or intolerance.
Reports indicate the embassy in Cairo released its initial statement before the invasion of the embassy commenced. Doesn’t this show they were trying to tamp down the protest and prevent what ultimately happened, not sympathize with the protesters?
— The Administration was wrong to stand by a statement sympathizing with those who had breached our embassy in Egypt instead of condemning their actions.
Romney is a real ass. He had plenty of time to walk back his initial statement, and IMHO, that's exactly what he should have done by now.
Doubling down and trying to defend himself at this juncture is beyond stupid. He's got himself in a hell of a mess now, and he's got nobody to blame except himself. "Talking points" just won't cut it.
Mitch McConnell declines to comment on Romney response to embassy attacks. Does offer "president correctly heightened security overseas" — @jonathanweisman via web
Boehner, Cantor and Rubio statements this AM do not echo Romney's. They neither mention Obama nor slam the administration's response. — @PhilipRucker via TweetDeck
... campaign surrogates:
Quote :
Just watched an excellent and moving stmt by Sec. Clinton- just the right message and tone. — @SenJohnMcCain via web
Condi, who could have tossed Romney a really important rope, doesn't http://t.co/... — @BuzzFeedBen via TweetDeck
... media hacks:
Quote :
Unless Mitt has gamed crisis out in some manner completely invisible to Gang of 500,doubling down=most craven+ill-advised move of '12 — @MarkHalperin via Twitter for BlackBerry®
A ham-handed and inaccurate response from Romney http://t.co/... There is a reason why politix stops at water's edge — @ron_fournier via TweetDeck
Peggy Noonan: "I don't feel that Mr. Romney has been doing himself any favors in the past few hours." — @CPHeinze via web
Romney appears to have launched a political attack even before facts of embassy violence were known. Then uses day to issue vague FP vision — @davidgregory via Tweetbot for iOS
... and the head of the Family freaking Research Council:
Quote :
Tony Perkins says Obama does not sympathize with those who attacked our diplomats. On this, Romney is more reactionary than Perkins. — @WeeZieInc via web
... it's time to stop digging. Which probably means Mitt will be breaking out his platinum shovel at any moment.
The Romney campaign required each of the candidates on its vice presidential short list to hand over 10 years of tax returns, the Daily Beast reported Thursday. That’s eight more years of returns than Romney himself has revealed to the American public — a move for which he’s been ridiculed from Republicans and Democrats alike. Former Minnesota Gov. Tim Pawlenty (R) previously indicated that he had been required to turn over a “bunch” of returns during the vetting process, but did not give a specific number.
By Editorial Board, Saturday, September 15, 5:32 PM
FOR SEVERAL weeks, we’ve been asking Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney to explain how he can cut taxes, as promised, without adding to the nation’s debt, as also promised. Now he’s effectively let the cat out of the bag: He can’t.
Mr. Romney’s tax plan calls for reducing income tax rates by 20 percent. The top bracket would go from 35 percent to 28 percent. He has said that he can do this in a revenue-neutral way by eliminating loopholes. While the rich might pay more, he has said, the middle class would pay less.
There are a couple of pitfalls here. The first is that while closing loopholes sounds good — Make those oil companies pay! — the costliest ones are cherished by most Americans. These are tax provisions that promote home ownership, charitable giving, and employer-provided health care and that allow taxpayers to deduct their state and local income taxes. Limiting or eliminating these popular “loopholes” would be extremely difficult.
The second obstacle, as shown by the Tax Policy Center, a joint venture of the Brookings Institution and the Urban Institute, is that Mr. Romney’s plan is mathematically impossible, even if it were politically feasible. Take away every deduction from every wealthy household, the center calculated, and you still couldn’t make up the revenue the government would lose by reducing rates without raising taxes on middle-class households.
Not so, Mr. Romney protested recently, and cited an analysis by Harvard economist Martin Feldstein, a Romney campaign adviser. Mr. Feldstein said the math could work — if you took away every deduction from every household earning $100,000 or more. (Even then, he couldn’t pay for the estate tax abolition that Mr. Romney also favors, but never mind.) Is that what Mr. Romney has in mind, we asked? If not, what is his plan?
On Friday, ABC’s George Stephanopoulos put the question to the candidate. “No, middle income is $200,000 to $250,000 and less,” Mr. Romney replied.
But then, the Harvard study shows, the math can’t work. His answer? “The biggest source of getting the country to a balanced budget is not by raising taxes or by cutting spending,” he said. “It’s by encouraging the growth of the economy.”
In other words, we are back to counting on magic — to “dynamic scoring,” the voodoo economics of the Reagan era, the wishful thinking of President George W. Bush’s 2001 and 2003 tax cuts that helped turn a surplus into the deficit now weighing the nation’s economy. Cut taxes and hope the economy grows faster than predicted.
At a time when the nation is already on course to build up a debt so large that interest payments alone will begin to drown us, Mr. Romney wants to reduce taxes further, with — it now appears — no plan to make up the difference. It almost takes your breath away.
It’s only September, but Mitt Romney has already written off almost half the country’s voters. A hidden-camera recording obtained by Mother Jones captures Romney at a private fundraiser telling donors that, “There are 47 percent of the people who will vote for the president no matter what. All right, there are 47 percent who are with him, who are dependent upon government, who believe that they are victims, who believe the government has a responsibility to care for them, who believe that they are entitled to health care, to food, to housing, to you-name-it.” Watch it:
In other words just anyone who votes for Obama can go f%#k themselves There's a lot more video of this meeting at the 'hidden camera' link. Thanks for helping to energize Obama voters,Mittens.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/17/2012, 9:12 pm
Paging Pat Robertson and Wingnut Evangelicals....Please pick up the White courtesy phone
It was as if the Playboy Mansion met the East End at a wild party at private-equity titan Marc Leder’s Bridgehampton estate, where guests cavorted nude in the pool and performed sex acts, scantily dressed Russians danced on platforms and men twirled lit torches to a booming techno beat.
The divorced Sun Capital Partners honcho rented a sprawling beachfront mansion on Surf Side Road for $500,000 for the month of July. Leder’s weekly Friday and Saturday night parties have become the talk of the Hamptons — and he ended them in style last weekend with his wildest bash yet.
Oh yeah. This campaign is getting deep now.
More will be coming out about Mr Leder's financial shenanigans.
When Mittens calls a presser at 9:25PM on a Monday night you know he knows he's in big trouble. The desperate man took 3 questions and here's the money quote
Quote :
“It’s not elegantly stated, let me put it that way. I’m speaking off the cuff,”
Meanwhile,David Corn who broke the story announced that there would be more video tomorrow,the event ran 70 minutes, but that Mittens could "sleep a little better" knowing that what will be released tomorrow won't be as bad as what was released today,but that it would cause "another problem" The media is all over this story now like a hungry dog on a meat truck.
Former president Jimmy Carter’s grandson helped leak video of Mitt Romney at a private fundraiser to Mother Jones Magazine, the younger Carter told NBC News and New York Magazine’s Daily Intel blog.
James Carter IV helped connect Mother Jones reporter David Corn with video of Romney at a fundraiser saying, among other things, that it is not his “job” to win over the 47 percent of voters committed to President Obama, because they are “dependent on government” and he will “never convince them they should take personal responsibility and care for their lives.”
Carter IV, whose Twitter bio says he is an opposition researcher, told Daily Intel he first noticed online a part of the video in which Romney discusses Chinese labor when working at Bain Capital. Then, as additional footage was added, he tracked down the originating source of the footage and put that person in touch with Corn.
“Any time that you can find a clip that strengthens the narrative already established, that’s what becomes a big deal,” Carter told Daily Intel. “I’ve been trying to get paid for this but it hasn’t worked out yet. This might help.”
Carter told NBC News that after he sent the Mother Jones article to his grandfather, the former president responded warmly, writing: “James: This is extraordinary. Congratulations! Papa.”
Carter also told NBC that Romney’s criticism of his grandfather bothered him, providing extra motivation to release the videos.
“It gets under my skin — mostly the weakness on the foreign policy stuff,” Carter said. “I just think it’s ridiculous. I don’t like criticism of my family.”
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/19/2012, 11:34 am
Artie60438 wrote:
Meanwhile,David Corn who broke the story announced that there would be more video tomorrow,the event ran 70 minutes, but that Mittens could "sleep a little better" knowing that what will be released tomorrow won't be as bad as what was released today,but that it would cause "another problem" The media is all over this story now like a hungry dog on a meat truck.
Romney Tapes Doctored? Mother Jones Confesses to '1-2' Minute Gap
By Jeffrey Lord on 9.19.12 @ 9:59AM
Maybe you should just call them Mother Milhous Jones. Legal Insurrection's William A. Jacobson has done a brilliant piece of detective work. Take a look here at a cornered David Corn of Mother Jones finally admitting that, yes indeed, Mother Jones has been…ahhhhh…shall we say…..less than forthcoming about the now famous Romney tapes. The tapes, as the world now knows, appear to show Governor Romney discussing the number of Americans who don't pay taxes, consider themselves victims, and so on. But wait! After considerable prodding by an alert Jacobson, who noticed something askew, Corn is finally forced to admit: According to the source, the recording device inadvertently turned off. The source noticed this quickly and turned it back one.(sic) The source estimates that one to two minutes, maybe less, of recording was missed. So. Mother Jones, in its zeal to get Romney, deliberately released a tape insisting that they had released the whole tape, nothing but the whole tape, so help them God. Here is Corn flatly asserting a falsehood to Jacobson: Romney says we posted "snippets" & not full answers in the secret videos. Uh…no. See for yourself. The full tape: motherjones.com/politics/2012… Now we find out that ..uh…yes. Raising the instant comparison to the famous Nixon 18 ½ minute Watergate tape gap. For those who came in late, just last year the late President Richard Nixon's testimony to the Grand Jury investigating Watergate was released. Nixon is shown as insisting that the famous missing 18 ½ minutes of tape was an accident. In the day, which is to say when Nixon's enemies were besieging him in the White House, the revelation of the tape gap brought a howling chorus from angry Nixon critics, who specifically accused the President of personally and deliberately erasing 18 ½ minutes of tape that clearly, in their view, would have shown Nixon guilty. Now the obvious question arises. Were the Romney tapes, like the Nixon tapes, deliberately doctored to make them say what Mother Jones and Jimmy Carter's grandson wanted them to say? With the incident being passed off by David Corn exactly as Nixon himself passed of the Watergate tape gap? Here's Nixon, per Politico's reporting of his Grand Jury testimony: Nixon told grand jurors that he believed it was simply an accident that some of the tape got erased. Here's David Corn of Mother Jones to William Jacobson: According to the source, the recording device inadvertently turned off. The source noticed this quickly and turned it back one.(sic) The source estimates that one to two minutes, maybe less, of recording was missed. For Nixon, the tampered tape was "simply an accident." For Mother Jones, the tampered Romney tape was an accident because "the recording device inadvertently turned off." Last but not least is the ever reliable Chris Matthews of NBC, who had the provider of the tape -- Jimmy Carter's namesake grandson James Earl Carter IV -- on Matthews' Hardballshow. Did Matthews report the tape had been fiddled with? Did Carter? Why of course not. Not a peep. And what did Inspector Clouseau… sorry… Chris Matthews say to young Mr. Carter? According to Mediaite, the interview began this way: "It's an honor to have on such a good researcher and such a good reporter," Chris Matthews began, before asking if the former president was watching. Finally Matthews asks: "What was your attitude about getting this tape into the hands of David Corn who is a liberal writer and you figured he would get it out?" Carter replied that he, as a partisan Democrat, believed it would assist Democrats in the coming election. So. What do we have? Jimmy Carter's grandson, a self-admitted "partisan Democrat," gets a tape "into the hands of David Corn, who is a liberal writer." The tape is missing a crucial "1-2 minutes" -- but Carter says nothing about it, Corn initially insists the tape is complete, and Matthews dutifully never says a word. Do we have the game now?
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/19/2012, 11:58 am
Quote :
David Corn @DavidCornDC
Plenty of conservative trolls screaming about 1-2 minutes not recorded on Romney tapes. See the explanation here: http://t.co/eV3xjsjQ
Quote :
David Corn @DavidCornDC
How suspicious--since every undercover video shot at a fundraiser is high-quality & runs over an hour with no interruptions. #sarcasm
Quote :
David Corn @DavidCornDC
I plead guilty to not selectively editing videotape we did not have.
My crystal ball tells me that soon there are going to be plenty of Anti-Romney ads featuring very successful,highly respected,and admired people that at one time or another relied on Gov't assistance.
Senate Republican leaders fled their weekly press conference after delivering prepared remarks Wednesday without taking a single question from reporters eagerly seeking their thoughts on their presidential nominee’s newly unearthed remarks dismissing nearly half of American voters.
Quote :
Before the GOP press conference, Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-NV) taunted them over their candidate’s troubles, telling reporters, “We have a long line of people who are running from Romney as if the Olympics are still on.”
Independent voters, by 29% to 15%, also more negative than positive by Frank Newport
PRINCETON, NJ -- Americans have a more negative than positive immediate reaction to Republican presidential nominee Mitt Romney's comments, secretly caught on video, about the 47% of Americans whom he said are Obama supporters and dependent on the government. Thirty-six percent of voters say Romney's comments make them less likely to vote for him, while 20% say the remarks make them more likely to vote for him, and 43% say the comments won't make a difference. But independents -- voters who are, by definition, less fixed in their partisanship -- tilt toward the "less likely" over the "more likely" view by a 29% to 15% margin -- although more than half say Romney's comments make no difference.
Now the only question is what stupid thing the desperate Mittens will do next to try and change the subject. Release his tax returns? Nope,certainly can't do that
Ann Romney complained to Radio Iowa about the Republican critics of her husband's presidential campaign last night.
Said Romney:
Quote :
"Stop it. This is hard. You want to try it? Get in the ring. This is hard and, you know, it's an important thing that we're doing right now and it's an important election and it is time for all Americans to realize how significant this election is and how lucky we are to have someone with Mitt's qualifications and experience and know-how to be able to have the opportunity to run this country."
Yes indeed,we sure are lucky to have Mitt as a candidate.
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/21/2012, 3:54 pm
Artie, have you seen Harry Reid lately? Harry? Is that you, hiding behind the poetry-reading cowboy? It's OK, Harry - you can come out now. We're not mad - we know you have problems. We understand that chronic constipation is no laughing matter.
A second source, said to be "close to Senator [Harry] Reid," has told CNN's Dana Bash that Reid's original source for the claim that Mitt Romney "didn't pay any taxes for 10 years" exists, is a "Bain investor" and a "credible person." Dana Bash reported on this source, and the person's willingness to corroborate the allegation to which the Senate majority leader repeated on Thursday's airing of CNN's AC360.
As Bash told the show's host, Anderson Cooper:
I did speak to one source who is very close to Senator Reid who claims to also know who the Bain investor is that Reid spoke with, and insists that it is a credible person and this person if we knew the name we would understand they would have the authority and the ability to know about Romney's tax returns.
"Whether we'll find it out ever," Bash added, "who knows? They're doing it on purpose, so this is the discussion."
Wingnuts are going absolutely batshit over this but they only have themselves to blame. Simply put,Mitt Romney was never properly vetted on his financials and now it's coming back to bite him big time. Besides this issue Democratic congressmen are now wanting to know how it was possible for Mittwit to accumulate 100 million in an IRA when the legal limits on contributions are only $6000 a year Dem Lawmakers Want Answers About Romney’s Enormous IRA
Mitt Romney released his 2011 tax return this afternoon, showing that he paid an effective rate last year of 14.1%. Brad Malt, who manages blind trusts for Romney and his wife, Ann, disclosed some broad outlines of the couple's return in a letter posted on the Romney campaign website. MORE :Romney, Ryan declared in good health The Romneys paid more than $1.9 million in taxes on about $13.7 million in income, most of which come from investments. Capital gains and dividends are taxed at 15% -- a lower rate than the 35% on ordinary income such as wages and salaries. The Romneys also donated slightly more than $4 million to charity last year, amounting to nearly 30% of their income. The couple, however, claimed only $2.25 million as a deduction. Malt said the Romneys "limited" their charitable deductions to "conform" with the candidate's statement in August that he paid at least 13% in income taxes every year for the last 10 years. The documents also show the Romneys were due a refund last year of about $1.5 million, which the couple applied to their tax liability for 2012. Romney's complete tax return and supporting documents are
………
Romney's campaign also released a notarized letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers LLP, showing that Mitt and Ann Romney owed both state and federal income taxes for a 20-year period, starting with 1990 and going through 2009. The PricewaterhouseCoopers statement says the firm is "not aware of any outstanding income tax amounts for the period owed to the Internal Revenue Service or to any state tax authority." The accounting firm says the Romneys paid an average annual effective federal tax rate of 20.2%. The lowest personal rate they paid was 13.66% -- which would support Romney's statement in August that he's paid at least 13% every year. In that period, Malt said the Romneys gave an average of 13.45% of their adjusted gross income to charity.
We’ll be poring over the actual returns soon, but an initial release from the Romney campaign has already told us a couple of amusing things.
First, Mitt and Ann Romney donated a whole heck of a lot of money to charity in 2011 — $4,020,772, to be exact, or about 30 percent of their total income. But they chose only to claim $2.25 million of that total as charitable deductions, because, well, otherwise, their overall tax burden would been a little, shall we say, light.
From the campaign:
The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.
Without claiming the total legally possible deduction, Romney ended up paying an effective tax rate of 14.1 percent. If he’d claimed everything he had a right to, he would only have paid around 9 percent.
There’s something both hilarious and pathetic about a presidential candidate manipulating his deductions so he ends up paying what he considers a more politically appropriate tax rate. But it’s especially ludicrous n light of Romney’s numerous claims that he’s always paid the government exactly what he owes, “and not a dollar more,” implying that anyone who voluntarily gave the government more than he legally owed was either a fool or a moron.
Romney is even on record declaring that the act of paying more than he owed would mean he shouldn’t be eligible for the presidency!
As usual when Rombot tries to quell controversy he just opens himself up for more problems. Anyone wanna bet that those years he's been hiding add up to a whole lot less than 14%,maybe even zero.
Oh,and one more thing. Mittens could still amend that return after the election,up to 3 years I believe,and pay a whole lot less.
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/21/2012, 5:38 pm
Artie60438 wrote:
Anyone wanna bet that those years he's been hiding add up to a whole lot less than 14%,maybe even zero.
Where are those years hiding? Possibly in the same in the same undisclosed location as that of Harry Reid's Mitt-Romney-didn't-pay-income-tax-for-10-years source?
Romney's campaign also released a notarized letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers showing that Mitt and Ann Romney owed both state and federal income taxes for a 20-year period, starting with 1990 and going through 2009. The PricewaterhouseCoopers statement says the firm is "not aware of any outstanding income tax amounts for the period owed to the Internal Revenue Service or to any state tax authority." The accounting firm says the Romneys paid an average annual effective federal tax rate of 20.2%. The lowest personal rate they paid was 13.66% -- which would support Romney's statement in August that he's paid at least 13% every year.
happy jack
Posts : 6988
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/21/2012, 5:40 pm
Artie60438 wrote:
Oh,and one more thing. Mittens could still amend that return after the election,up to 3 years I believe,and pay a whole lot less.
Which would apparently be perfectly legal. So what ridiculous point are you attempting to make with that statement?
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/21/2012, 7:53 pm
happy jack wrote:
Artie60438 wrote:
Anyone wanna bet that those years he's been hiding add up to a whole lot less than 14%,maybe even zero.
[b]Where are those years hiding? Possibly in the same in the same undisclosed location as that of Harry Reid's Mitt-Romney-didn't-pay-income-tax-for-10-years source?
Romney's campaign also released a notarized letter from PricewaterhouseCoopers showing that Mitt and Ann Romney owed both state and federal income taxes for a 20-year period, starting with 1990 and going through 2009. The PricewaterhouseCoopers statement says the firm is "not aware of any outstanding income tax amounts for the period owed to the Internal Revenue Service or to any state tax authority." The accounting firm says the Romneys paid an average annual effective federal tax rate of 20.2%. The lowest personal rate they paid was 13.66% -- which would support Romney's statement in August that he's paid at least 13% every year.
You really think Mittwit releasing those tax return summaries helps him? If you do,you're dumber than I thought. Guess what? It's just another turd in the punchbowl and by his own words it should disqualify him from being POTUS.
Quote :
Quote :
I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.
If Romney had taken all of the deductions available to him under the tax code, he would have paid closer to a 9 percent tax rate in 2011. In attempting to match up his tax rate with his prior statement, Romney is paying more in taxes — and by his very own standard — disqualifying himself from the presidency. It’s worth noting that under Romney’s tax plan, he would cut his own rates even further, and would have paid little to no taxes under Paul Ryan’s 2010 budget, which would have eliminated the capital gains tax.
In a blog post, Romney’s lawyer and the trustee of his “blind trust” said, “After you have reviewed all of the newly-posted documents, you may have further questions.” Yes, we do. Lots.
Here are 10 unanswered questions about Romney’s taxes:
1. After the election, when the subject of your tax returns is outside of the public glare, will you file an amended tax return to claim your full deduction of charitable contributions? Was the tax rate you reported for other years similarly manipulated?
2. Why was your 2011 income $7 million lower than you estimated it to be in January? How does someone overestimate their income by $7 million?
3. Financial disclosures show that you have as much as $82 million in your tax-deferred Individual Retirement Account, despite the fact that tax rules limited contributions into such accounts to $30,000 per year. Did you lowball the value of the assets you put into your IRA, as tax experts suspect? And did you do the same with gifts into your sons’ trusts?
4. What was the purpose of your Swiss bank account and the myriad offshore entities shown on your return, based in countries like the Cayman Islands and Luxembourg, if not to avoid taxes?
5. Can you explain what one tax expert has called a “mysterious one-time infusion of foreign tax credits” in 2008?
6. You have not disclosed any foreign bank account reports (FBARs). Did you file all FBARs on all of your offshore accounts with the Treasury Department by the legal deadlines each year?
7. You claim to have paid an average tax rate of 20 percent over the last 20 years based on a flawed calculation. What was your real tax rate?
8. Your 14 percent tax rate –- not to mention the approximately 10 percent tax rate you would have paid had you not inflated it — is less than what many middle-class Americans pay. And you paid just 0.2% of your income in payroll taxes, while most Americans pay about 15%. Do you think that is fair?
9. Your tax returns show that the Marriott Corporation paid you $260,390 in directors’ fees in 2011. When you were the company’s audit committee chair in the 1990s, were you aware that the company was abusing a notorious illegal tax shelter?
10. You say you’ve made a “commitment to the public” that your tax rate should not be below 13 percent. If you believe that the richest Americans shouldn’t be paying an exceptionally low tax rate, why don’t you support President Obama’s “Buffett Rule”?
Romney’s lack of transparency on his tax returns is especially troubling given that he is similarly evasive on the details of his tax policies. From what we know about his tax plan, Romney would shower massive tax breaks on the wealthiest Americans, which means that it can only adds up with a major middle-class tax hike. How much will Romney raise your taxes in order to cut taxes for people like him? That’s the biggest unanswered question of all.
Washington, D.C.—Nevada Senator Harry Reid issued the following statement after Mitt Romney released today one year worth of tax returns, showing he paid a lower tax rate than most middle class Americans:
"The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he's seen fit to show the American people – and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements. That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated? We already know Romney has money in tax havens in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. What we don't know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he's made in his financial life. When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president? Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking. The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes.
"It’s also galling to see the creative accounting Mitt Romney applied to his own tax returns only days after learning of his insulting comments that seniors, soldiers and hard-working parents don’t pay enough taxes. Once again, we see Mitt Romney is out of touch with middle class families, who don’t have the luxury of accounting wizards and foreign tax shelters. It’s obvious he believes in two sets of rules: one for him, and one for the middle class. He says he wants to be president for only half the people but he acts like he only cares for the top two percent. Despite the fiscal cliff looming in just over three months, Mitt Romney refuses to explain the details of his tax policy. Will the policies he proposes benefit all Americans, or only multi-millionaires like him?"
Washington, D.C.—Nevada Senator Harry Reid issued the following statement after Mitt Romney released today one year worth of tax returns, showing he paid a lower tax rate than most middle class Americans:
"The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he's seen fit to show the American people – and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements. That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated? We already know Romney has money in tax havens in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. What we don't know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he's made in his financial life. When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president? Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking. The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes.
"It’s also galling to see the creative accounting Mitt Romney applied to his own tax returns only days after learning of his insulting comments that seniors, soldiers and hard-working parents don’t pay enough taxes. Once again, we see Mitt Romney is out of touch with middle class families, who don’t have the luxury of accounting wizards and foreign tax shelters. It’s obvious he believes in two sets of rules: one for him, and one for the middle class. He says he wants to be president for only half the people but he acts like he only cares for the top two percent. Despite the fiscal cliff looming in just over three months, Mitt Romney refuses to explain the details of his tax policy. Will the policies he proposes benefit all Americans, or only multi-millionaires like him?"
On the topic of Mitt Romney's taxes, Harry Reid has been proven to be a lying crapsack. He has no credibility whatsoever.
Artie60438
Posts : 9728
Subject: Re: Mitt Romney v10.0 9/22/2012, 6:08 pm
happy jack wrote:
[b]On the topic of Mitt Romney's taxes, Harry Reid has been proven to be a lying crapsack. He has no credibility whatsoever.
Since we have not seen Mittens full tax records there is no proof that Reid is lying.
Quote :
Fact:Mitt Romney released over 20 years of tax returns to John McCain while being vetted for VP in 2008. Why will he not extend the same courtesy to the American voting public that he gave to McCain?
Care to explain why?
We know Mittens required Lyin Ryan to submit 10 years of his returns. Shouldn't Mitt show his?
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There's a lot more video of this meeting at the 'hidden camera' link. Thanks for helping to energize Obama voters,Mittens. 
