It is now 120 days since Mitt Romney failed to release anything but his 2009 and 2010 tax returns. It is now 39 days since Mitt Romney requested an extension of the time to file his 2011 tax returns.
There needs to be a constant drumbeat that Romney is hiding his tax information for no
reason. I'm considering doing a daily or other regular diary about this, but maybe there should be a countdown clock on the front page.
In the midst of all of the debate about Bain and Private Equity, we have not heard much about Mitt Romney's tax rate and his failure to release his tax returns. Somehow, David Brooks' column today about the wonders of private equity failed to mention that private equity returns are taxed at the capital gains rate of 15%, rather than the 20, 25, 30. 36% rates that most of the rest of us pay. In fact, Romney's 2010 returns showed that his effective tax rate is below 15% (13.9%) that year.
So people like Romney have many lucrative no-lose investments on which they pay 15% on the income from the investment. That's something even the average low-information voter can understand. People complaining about paying for the poor need to be educated that their taxes are making up for taxes that the rich don't pay.
On the other hand, President Obama and Vice-President Biden have released their tax returns going back to 2000, and Romney's father, George famously released 12 years of tax returns.
Time for the Obama campaign to have a countdown clock on Mitt's Tax Returns.