Why won't Romney release more tax returns? on the Peoria.com Forums

(CNN) -- By announcing that he will release no further tax returns beyond his 2010 and 2011 returns, Mitt Romney appears to have exempted himself from the proud bipartisan tradition of presidential nominees displaying genuine financial candor with the electorate.

What is more, his disclosure to date is in the wrong direction: It is the release of Romney's past returns, not his current ones, that matters.

Since George Romney inaugurated the practice more than 40 years ago by releasing 12 years of tax returns in his bid for the Republican Party nomination, presidential nominees have been transparent with voters about their personal finances. For this reason, we have not suffered a significant tax scandal involving a nominee or sitting president since President Richard Nixon's abuse of the tax code.

www.cnn.com/2012/07/18/opinion/kleinbard-canellos-romney-tax/index.html?hpt=hp_c1

This week, CNN's Erin Burnett offered up three possible reasons why he hasn't released them yet... and I'm rather fond of #3.

http://chizony.com/wp-content/uploads/2012/07/6c648_

He'll release them when President Transparency removes executive privilege from the Fast and Furious documents plus releases his college records.

@JnJ:

Really?

@Sterling:

One of the reasons I would never vote for Romney is because I find him shady. This underscores it. I trust him less now, than I did newt.

I have no issues with the fact he is very well off, actually, I'm happy for him, but show us it was accumulated in a manor respectable of our nation's highest office. As someone commented on that article, Al Capone created jobs and made a profit and was seen as a pretty savvy business man, doesn't make him presidential material.

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There is nothing possibly that Romney did with his money that Obama didn't do with yours times ten. He will do ANYTHING to change the subject from his miserable record and you are buying right into it.

@JnJ:

Really? Cause last time I checked I didn't care for Obama either, so that approach doesn't work with me. This has nothing to do with OHBummer and everything to do with Smutty.

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I don't think there is enough information in a tax return to determine how reputable of a businessman someone is...

What his tax returns will show is the low effective tax rates that wealthy people pay. Romney's tax returns will be the poster-child of the Obama campaign's position on tax fairness.

The general consensus is that no one really cares what he did with his money (although it will look pretty bad if they're in the Caymans or whatever to avoid taxes), but there's some confusion as to where it came from. Investment income is one thing, but payroll income is another.

For instance, if he got paid a salary (reportedly $100,000 a year) to be president/CEO/whatever else at Bain while he was prepping the Olympics, then one of three things happened:
1) He made six figures a year on payroll to do absolutely nothing for the company (sadly, this is best case scenario for Romney);
2) He still had an active leadership role at Bain while they were aggressively outsourcing jobs overseas; or
3) Bain lied on their SEC filings and Romney signed off on it (or someone forged his signature).

Fast and Furious may be a totally trumped up story and Obama's college grades from 25 years ago seems downright unimportant considering he's already served as president for the past three and a half years. Keep in mind he was elected president of the Harvard Law Review, which traditionally implies a pretty good standing in college.

Speaking of "doing ANYTHING to change the subject from his miserable record", why is your primary defense of Romney always go along the lines of "well, look at Obama, he's worse"?

@Sterling:

Beat me to it!

Becasue it is quite likley there is a good chance there were some years when he did NOT have to pay any taxes.

Translation: Obama is doing something I consider wrong, so that makes it alright for me to do the same.

Phht. More of the same Washington politics. I miss Reagan.

The average person doesn't give two twats what's in Romney's tax returns - they care about what both of these men plan to do for THEM. History has already shown what Obama will do for them - stay on topic. Asking for Romney's tax returns is designed only to spend another few months playing HEY LOOK AT THE MONKEY and Romney is smart not to go along with it.

I think the average person would like to know if they're voting for a guy who made money off outsourcing jobs.

two what's???

McCain only turned in two years worth of returns as well. It really doesn't matter. It looks kind of shady, but Romney's camp has decided they'd rather look a little shady than publicly disclose the tax returns. Story will be dead in 48 hours.