CNN just ran a video of President Obama's responding to questions about Mitt Romney's taxes saying being President of the United States is a privilege, not an entitlement. (Full transcript here)
Yesterday, the Romney campaign said it will not release any more than the last two years of tax returns, and Romney's campaign advisor, Eric Fehnstrom, instructed us that "Romney's taxes are not an issue." Our president reminds us that it is not up to Romney and Fehrnstrom to tell us what our issues are, it is up to us voters, and our country has a precedent going back to Romney's father, George Romney who released 12 years, saying transparency is vital to the proper workings of a democracy. President Obama nails the underlying meme, that is so galling about Mitt Romney - he is so entitled, he not only disrespects our national tradition of transparency in democracy, but then has the "entitlement gall" to tell us how we should feel about it, and that our feelings will not be an issue in this election!
President Obama says:
And when it comes to releasing taxes, that's a precedent that was set decades ago, including by Governor Romney's father. And for us to say that it makes sense to release your tax returns, as I did, as John McCain did, as Bill Clinton did, as the two President Bushes did, I don't think is in any way out of bounds.
I think that is what the American people would rightly expect -- is a sense that, particularly when we're going to be having a huge debate about how we reform our tax code and how we pay for the government that we need, I think people want to know that everybody has been playing by the same rules, including people who are seeking the highest office in the land. This is not an entitlement, being President of the United States. This is a privilege. And we've got to put ourselves before the American people to make our case.
More below the squiggle.
After the comments above, Chuck Todd, asked this follow-up, and the President's response below comes from the same transcript sited about.
I also want to follow up on an answer you just gave to Nancy. You said that one of the reasons you wanted to see Mitt Romney's tax returns was you want to see if everybody is playing by the same set of rules. That actually goes to the question she asked, which is this implication, do you think there's something Mitt Romney is not telling us in his tax returns that indicates he's not playing by the same set of rules?
THE PRESIDENT: No. There's a difference between playing by the same sets of rules and doing something illegal. And in no way have we suggested the latter. But the first disclosure, the one year of tax returns that he disclosed indicated that he used Swiss bank accounts, for example. Well, that may be perfectly legal, but I suspect if you ask the average American, do you have one and is that part of how you manage your tax obligations, they would say no. They would find that relevant information, particularly when we're going into a time where we know we're going to have to make tough choices both about spending and about taxes.
So I think the idea that this is somehow exceptional, that there should be a rationale or a justification for doing more than the very bare minimum has it backwards. I mean, the assumption should be you do what previous presidential candidates did, dating back for decades. And Governor Romney's own dad says, well, the reason I put out 10 or 12 years is because any single year might not tell you the whole story. And everybody has, I think, followed that custom ever since.
The American people have assumed that if you want to be President of the United States, that your life is an open book when it comes to things like your finances. I'm not asking him to disclose every detail of his medical records -- although we normally do that as well -- (laughter.) You know? I mean, this isn't sort of overly personal here, guys. This is pretty standard stuff. I don't think we're being mean by asking him to do what every other presidential candidate has done -- right? It's what the American people expect.
I'm glad President Obama is keeping this issue alive. We need to keep demanding that Mitt Romney release more of his tax returns, and answer questions about the one partial year he has released so far.