Let me join those who want to keep pushing that tax button. Now with the Ryan nomination fading from the very hottest topic of the moment, and lots of happy talk coming from the DNC, let's review some takeaway points about the Reid bombshell (saying Romney paid no taxes for 12 years or so) of just a few short weeks ago. How will this tax return assault continue to do damage to the repub ticket?
Let us count the ways, below the orange Elvish tattoo.
1. It reminds everyone constantly that rMoney is not like them. He’s got LOTS of money, some of it stashed away in exotic locations. Which raises images of his car elevator , his wife driving several Cadillacs, etc. Impression: HE’S NOT ONE OF US.
2. It revives long smoldering issues of his lies about his tax returns and near-disqualification during his bid for MA guv , revealing a looooong record of untrustworthiness.
3. It exposes the fact that he already released 23 years of those returns to the McCain train last time ‘round, though – mysteriously (heh) - that didn’t get him the nomination. But we’re not good enough to see them to decide whether We, the People, should hire him.
4. It forces him to say “Trust me,” over and over, and no one wants to hear THAT from a politician, especially considering #2, above.
5. It also raises rMoney’s uniquely bizarre history of “retroactively” changing official records, including tax returns (see #2), retirement agreements – and even dates – as if he alone possesses Dr. Who’s TARDIS. Maybe it’s the same one Obama’s mother used to go back and place those false birth announcements in the Hawaiian newspapers ? Just sayin’. In any event, normal people smell a con man when these types of stories continue to circulate.
6. It continues to raise the stench of his massive ill-gotten gains via some horrifying examples of vulture capitalism .
7. It keeps the fact front and center that he only paid a fraction (13%) of what middle class people pay in the only year we have any information about.
8. It allows connected people like Lawrence O-Donnell to accuse rMoney of concealing felonious behavior, signing falsified documents under pain and penalty of perjury.
9. It gets his and his wife’s knickers in an absolute knot, which exposes them as spoiled crybabies (e.g., here and here) who can’t function and get really ticked off at us inferior people when they don’t get whatever they want. We feel like we’re about to be fired .
10. It forces into the national discussion the loopholes that exist for the very rich in the tax code that allow sneaking around the world to tax havens to stash piles of dough. Think Caymans, Switzerland, Luxembourg, Bermuda.
11. It makes me – and lots and lots of other people – wonder just how much he’s worth. I think that the usual $200 million figure you see tossed around is waaaaay under the real number. I think he and his wife have control of well north of a billion bucks. I think they are desperate to conceal what a far-flung empire of interconnected, spun-off, semi-concealed funds and corporations they control.
12. It leaves open the possibility that Reid could implode their campaign by announcing his source at a strategic moment.
13. And, lucky 13, it can only help downticket races to expose the GOP as joined at the hip to vulture capitalism at its worst.
Let’s see him disprove any of this. Popcorn time.
Feel free to add your own to the list.