As the pressure builds, even from Republicans, for Mitt Romney to release more of his tax returns, what of the one return he has released in full? What does his 2010 tax return (he has released only an estimate for 2011, which is not yet complete) show?
According to Steve Rattner, it shows quite a bit. Rattner served as the "car czar," i.e., President Obama's lead advisor on the auto industry rescue plan.
Here's what Rattner had to say Sunday on CNN's "Fareed Zakaria GPS":
"If you say to your tax people, as he seems to have done, 'I want every trick in the book.' I want to push this to the edge....I will tell you that as a private equity guy, I'm familiar with many of the things that he did. And I know many people who have done many of the things that he did. I do not know anyone who did everything that he did."
"Some of what he did, like the IRA, I have asked fellow private equity guys....None of us had even known this was a possible trick, if you will. He has pushed the envelope all the way to the edge, to his benefit, and I think that Americans would find that pretty distasteful."
The IRA "trick" Rattner mentions is a reference to Romney having somehow plunked tens of millions of dollars, tax-free of course, into his IRA, despite the relatively low annual limits on contributions. For more on questions surrounding Romney's IRA, see this
article at HuffPo.
It is worth noting that, although Rattner is certainly an Obama supporter, HuffPo's Sam Stein says that Rattner "has occasionally served as a voice of sympathy for Romney as his business career has come under heavy attack. His comments, then, carry a bit more weight than the average criticism from an Obama ally."
For example, on May 14, Rattner actually criticized an Obama campaign ad about Romney/Bain and what the company did to GST Steel of Kansas City. Rattner called the ad "unfair" and added: "I don't think there's anything Bain Capital did that they need to be embarrassed about." On Rattner's criticism of the ad, see also this post by laserhaas here at DailyKos.
So, Rattner is no anti-capitalist taking shots at a fat cat. He is, as he said, a "private equity guy" himself. And even he's shocked by what Romney did. And that's only on the ONE return Romney's released.
Just imagine what's on the returns Governor Romney hasn't yet released.
8:24 AM PT: Here is the full transcript for anyone who wants to take a look. And h/t to MartyM.