Mitt Romney doesn't have much to say about his days at Bain Capital, his taxes, his offshore bank accounts, or his time as governor of Massachusetts. Here's a round-up of some of the things that have been said and reported.
Why does Bain matter?
Romney has made his success in business the centerpiece of his campaign. His business success came through his activities at Bain Capital. Romney says his business experience is important because it gives him an understanding of the economy that would be important when it comes to governing, and the economy is largely considered the number one concern of Americans when it comes to electing the President.
However, questions about Bain Capital practices will not go away. Piling debt on companies and closing them down, or slashing jobs and sending them overseas while reaping record profits, and new reports detail how the company itself was started with foreign investors.
In addition to all this, Romney's time at Bain was a key issue in his eligibility to run and eventually be elected to the office of Governor of Massachusetts. Romney says he left in 1999 to work sixteen hour days for the Olympics. However,he told a state commission that he was still involved with Bain in 2002. Oddly enough, thecurrent requirements for residency[pdf] of an elected Governor in the state is seven years. For those bad at math, 1999 to 2002 is less than three.
How can a man who profited by taking middle-class money and jobs, and shipping both overseas, help our country's economy? How can a man who can't be straight about his record run on it?
Why do Romney's taxes matter?
It has become common practice for presidential candidates to release several years of tax returns. Ironically, it was Mitt Romney's father who was a pioneer of this practice. It has become a show of transparency and trustworthiness for those seeking the country's highest office.
Beyond all that, in the wake of the banking scandal, the Great Recession, mortgage backed securities and the housing collapse, and the recent LIBOR scandal, how can the American people know that Mitt Romney is not what he appears to be: exactly the same type of mercenary financial manipulator that caused the collapse of the entire economy, with global effect?
After all, Romney believes that corporations are people, and says that he is not concerned about the very poor. In fact, he ascribes to the same trickle-down, tax-the-middle-class, tax breaks for the rich policies that are still snuffing out the middle-class today. The only people Romney's tax plan raises rates on is the bottom 20%. And the biggest tax cuts? The top 1% of earners.
Beyond even all that, there is some specualtion that Romney has been dodging taxes illegaly for years, and may have even been part of a tax dodger amnesty program through the IRS. He even admitted that offshore accounts were specifically designed to avoid taxes. It turns out that even the ONE YEAR of tax returns is not complete. What's missing? Well, the part that has to do with offshore bank accounts.
The one political operative that knows what is in the past twenty years of Romney's tax returns thinks it's not worth it for him to release them. Even conservatives acknowledge that there must be something so damaging that it's better to take the heat for not releasing them. To paraphrase Mark Twain, it's better to conceal your tax records and look like a tax dodger than to show them and remove all doubt.
Is a draft dodging, tax dodging taxer of the poor really the man to lead our great country?
What does all this say about Romney?
Secrecy. Superiority. Arrogance. Deceit. Entitlement. A lack of loyalty.
Mitt Romney feels he owes nothing to America or the American people. He promised transparency at the Olympics and then burned the records. He swore that he left Bain, then used his work at Bain to prove his residency. He destroyed records from his tenure as Governor. There isNOT ONE email from 2002 to 2006 on record. His answer to everything is, 'it wasn't me,I resigned.' He even has claimed to have retired "retroactively."
He thinks he deserves the highest office of the land, but the American people deserve nothing from him. His wife, Ann Romney, said that they had "given all you people need to know." He doesn't even feel the need to try to be truthful. He simply "lies all the time."
Now it is more important than ever for Americans to wake up to the fact that success in business is not an indication of quality of character, a propensity for hard work, or even a sharp mind. It is possible to be successful without any of these things. Business success is not exclusive of these traits, but neither is it evidence of them.
Finally, running a business where you make money with foreigners, ship jobs to foreign countries, send money you make in America to foreign banks, and purchasing clothes for American Olympic teams from brutal military juntas, are not things that demonstrate the focus and priorities of someone we should put in the oval office.