With tax day looming, you might be wondering how did Mitt Romney manage to get so rich, and end up paying so little in taxes? Robert Reich has a great explanation:
The magic of private equity isn’t really magic at all. It’s a magic trick—and it’s played on you and me. [...]
By the way, the “other people’s money” that private equity fund managers (as well as other so-called “hedge” fund managers) play with often comes from pension funds that contain the savings of millions of average Americans. [...]
It’s a giant con game, and it continues to this day.
It's a legal con game, one that President Obama and Senate Democrats are campaigning against with their push for the
Buffett Rule, a simple change to the tax code that Mitt Romney will reject (on
Grover Norquist's orders). Why would Mitt Romney be for tax fairness when he's making out so well?
But it's also a legal con game that you and I are subsidizing. Something else to think about on tax day, that and pondering what else we might find out about Mitt Romney's tax boondoggle, if only he'd release his returns.