There continues to be a lively debate about whether Mitt Romney’s decision to release decades of information on his tax returns—which definitively proved false Harry Reid’s dishonest accusations from the Senate floor—will be strategically beneficial to the campaign. But it cannot be said that we didn’t know exactly how the Obama campaign would respond. Romney surely must have been aware that the shamelessness of the Obama campaign and its allies would persist—and in fact has reached new lows by attacking Romney for paying more in taxes than he had to.
Earlier in the campaign, the Obama camp taunted Romney with a public letter asking for five years of tax returns and promising they would not ask for more. I wrote at the time:
What the Obama campaign letter meant, of course, is that they will criticize Romney for whatever they find in those five years of tax returns relentlessly, while their allies “outside” the campaign, like Harry Reid, continue to attack the Romney campaign—uncoordinated, they swear!—for not releasing more.
Within 24 hours, the Obama campaign fulfilled what I must admit was among the easiest predictions to make. First, the campaign, according to Politico:
Why were more than 65% of pages related to overseas investments? Why did he have investments in a Chinese oil company? Why did he have dozens of foreign accounts and million stashed away in tax havens like the Caymans? [Obama campaign spokeswoman Jen] Psaki asked, according to a pool report.
But how do you criticize as secretive or dishonest a man who gave millions to charity and more to the government than he legally had to? Ladies and gentlemen, the majority leader of the United States Senate:
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?
You almost can’t blame Reid for behaving this way. His fellow Democrats refuse to rein him in, and the media—which would be losing its mind if it were a Republican behaving this way—prefers to ignore it. He’s been given no reason to drop his inappropriate behavior.
This has been the general tone of the weekend. On ABC’s This Week, George Stephanopoulos asked David Axelrod if the Obama campaign would now turn from the tax returns to more serious topics, and Axelrod practically laughed at the question. No, there would be no Obama pivot to the issues.
Ironically, Stephanopoulos introduced a segment later in the show with a clip from the television show “The West Wing” in which the Democratic incumbent president’s staff decides their side is going to “raise the level of public debate in this country, and let that be our legacy”—though Stephanopoulos said that this must be Romney’s, not Obama’s, strategy going forward. On that, he appears to be correct. If the level of public discourse is going to be raised in this election, it will be on Romney to do so; the Obama campaign has politely—and sometimes not so politely—declined to participate in such a debate.
And this is news? The democrats think they have a weapon-they may be right- and they will use it till Election day.
Men without chests can only advance their ideology through relativism. Truth, facts, virtue and values are then easily dismissed or distorted.
The headline on the post is a lie. Romney did not release his past tax returns. He released a notarized statement of his average tax rate. Was his average tax rate affected by claiming amnesty in 2009 on his Swiss bank accounts? We don't know. We won't know until he releases his past tax returns.
Don't hold your breath. Ann Romney gave the game away when she said a release of the returns — the REAL returns and not summaries — would give ammunition to Obama. 'Nuff said!
Go away Obama Zombie…
Goon, you're appropriately named and embracing typical GOP ideology – name calling when someone disagrees with you.
"But how do you criticize as secretive or dishonest a man who gave millions to charity and more to the government than he legally had to?" n nEasy. He overpaid his taxes to keep his tax rate above 10%. A manipulation, just as Reid said. And he'll no doubt amend the return after he loses in November.
So??? At least he paid, unlike Geitner, and some of 0bamas Czars, who paid NOTHING for years. So its damn if you do, and damn if you dont, huh? Believe me, lots of democrats are doing the same. nTypical!
And of course, after the election, he will file an amended return that claims all the charitable deductions. The return he released is just show biz.
You ever heard of the Buffet Rule i.e. rich folks should pay more, Romney beat them to the punch and all you Obamanites can do is scream manipulation. The only people manipulating anything is the Obummer campaign, which makes them look like the low scum that they are.
Millions of people fill out amended returns every year.
Right, and millions of people do not intentionally omit charitable deductions. Really, is anyone fooled by the man who took two sides of nearly every position?
I suppose in the end all you can do is demand angelic perfection of everyone in every sphere of their life since the day they fell out of their mother. Which is fine, actually. I can imagine that a world governed by superhuman angels would be absurdly intolerant of our mere mortal weaknesses.
So why pick the most dishonest, least consistent, most unprepared one? n nPersonally, I never have known any politician to take so many positions on so many issues, then switch them, depending on this audience. Romney sets the world record for evasiveness.
Except of course for all the others
The world is burning. Let's all focus on Romney's tax returns. After all he's a rich guy, and does what all rich people do, which is invest money and earn dividends, which are taxed at a lower rate. Bad Rich Romney, Bad! n nOn the other hand, he gives away millions in charity. Of course its all a clever ruse to compensate for the evilness of paying a dividend based tax rate. Bad Rich Romney, Bad! n nNever mind the fact that Romney earned every penny, and Harry Reid became a millionaire while a politician, and Biden gave effectively zero to charity, and Obama got land for his house from a convicted felon. Bad Rich Romney, Bad!
No, let's not focus on his returns. Let him release them, and not summaries, if he wants the issue to go away.
It is a non-issue duude, the only thing you can say is he paid too much in taxes so he must be hidding something, what a load of bull crap. You what tax cheats, look to the left and you will have no trouble finding them. BTW the issues in this campaign are, the economy, jobs and the national debit all of which Obummer has been a supreme failure at rectifying. n nIt's time to give the Socialist-in-Chief a size 13 boot out the door.
Good rich Romney, who pretends his tax rate is 14% (by filing a fake return, which he will amend in November.) Amazing how "Romney earned every penny," but intentionally left $200,000 on the table by intentionally not taking deductions. Wonder why he did it.
The Liberal meme is that Romney is a tax cheat, therefore, all evidence, contrary or not, suports this premise. Left, right, left, the liberals march along to the beat of whatever tune is told them.
Just release the returns, and all questions will disappear. There must be a very strong reason why he refuses to release them, and instead puts questions into everyone's mind.
Oy, a birther. No wonder why you have such a high — 81! — wingnut rating.
Do you have a refutation to offer, or are you here to prove my point?
Obama Zombies offer nothing except that Bush is bad and it's not Barry O's fault.
nI suppose that George will get an email from the Obama campaign telling him to stay on message after this question. n n
Instead focus on the real issue: Whether Obama is a citizen. That IS the real issue, isn't it?
How about the real issues like Obama running the US Economy into the ground – how about the ineptness by the Obama administration to protect our embassies… Moreover, this president has failed to attend very many intel meetings and was warned about these attacks what four days in advance. Also, USA is the laughing stock of the world right now under Obama's administration… I could fill ten pages of the mess that is the Obama administration.
How about the Republicans (aka "The Party of "No.") consistently preventing stimulus plans, so they could complain about the economy, as a way to win the election. Forgot that?
nI am sick and tired of reading/listening to Obama Zombies telling us that the GOP is holding up job creation – because we won’t agree to more stimulus – it’s our money not the Governments. Since when is peeing our children’s futures away with stimulus money to unions and Obama voters job creation. How about Barry O get the heck out of the way and let the private sector flourish. This president is crushing job creation with his over excessive regulations. So please that dog doesn’t hunt.
1. Neither you or your children paid 1 cent for the stimulus. The U.S. is Monetarily Sovereign. It creates dollars by paying bills. Even if all federal taxes dropped to $0, that would not affect the federal government's ability to spend. Federal taxes do not pay for federal spending. n n2. All stimulus money, no matter where spent, stimulates the economy. GDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending – Net Imports. Increased Federal Spending increases GDP. It also increases Non-federal Spending by putting dollars into people's pockets. n nThe private sector cannot flourish without federal deficit spending.
That's crap – Stimulus Spending is adding to the Deficit and it hasn't gone to shovel ready jobs it went to Obama's buddies aka the Unions and Finland and other places like Solyndra. How did that work out for
Yes, stimulus spending adds to the deficit, which is necessary to grow the economy. Remember: n nGDP = Federal Spending + Non-federal Spending – Net Imports. n nWithout deficit spending, GDP cannot grow. Simple math. n nWhat happened to the dollars that "went to Obama's buddies"? Those "buddies" spent those dollars, thereby stimulating the economy. n nYou would do well to learn Monetary Sovereignty. n nRodger Malcolm Mitchell
The Liberal meme is that Romney, a man who hasn't had a job in six years by his own admission and allegedly has nothing to do with his investments basically makes millions of dollars for doing absolutely nothing. Then to add insult to injury he pays a far lower percentage of his "earnings" in taxes than the vast majority of Americans who work hard every day to make a living because somehow working Americans must pay a higher rate of their income than those that don't . No one says he is a bad person for taking advantage of his privilege however when he states that he will lower his tax rate even further if he becomes president and give extra tax breaks to the wealthiest Americans, that I think is beginning to resonate with the American people as being over the top. Add to this his complaining about the 47% who don't pay their fair share of taxes – this from a man who pays a far lower percentage than the average middle class voter. So according to the apologists at Commentary it is "shameful" to discuss this because he was twice as generous this year as he was last year knowing that his generosity might earn him some votes and reduce his tax liability?
Liberals cannot explain why I should be upset with what Romney does with his OWN money while ignoring all ot the trillions of my (the taxpayers') money that Obama pisses away.
No doubt Obama and the Democrats want to redistribute other hard earned money and give it to free loaders that pay no incomes taxes what-so-ever. I am sick and tired of this president and his economic policies…. Obama is pissing our childrens futures away and causing more people to be dependant on governement all the while not taking any blame for it. it's all Bushes fault.
Obama has not spent one cent of your money. n nIn a Monetarily Sovereign nation, federal spending does not use federal tax dollars. If federal taxes fell to $0 or rose to $999 trillion, neither event would have any effect on the ability of the federal government to spend. n nHow does it feel to learn that your federal taxes pay for absolutely nothing? (Good news: Your state and local taxes do pay for state and local spending. The states and cities are not Monetarily Sovereign.) n nRodger Malcolm Mitchell
The Obama camp is using communist theology and tactic. Everything goes as long as they have the power. Only that matters to transform the country. Soon the Constitution will be transformed too and perhaps freedom of speech as we know it will disappear. Americans ignorance of communist history is frightening!