Willard M. Romney relies upon blind trust. When questions were raised about Willard M. Romney's Cayman Island accounts, his campaign sent out an email:
"We remind you that Gov. Romney does not choose anything; these are BLIND TRUSTS," a campaign official wrote in an email.
(
ABC).
He also used the same argument four years ago when asked about stem cell research (BTW, what happened to stem cells as a defining issue for our time?).
Of course, his blind trust is not particularly blind: Romney's is run by his close friend and personal lawyer, one Bradford Malt. And this is not in accordance with ethics rules. Again per ABC:
Federal officeholders are required to either fully disclose all their financial holdings and any possible conflicts of interest, or place their holdings in a blind trust. Robert Kelner, a Republican election lawyer in Washington, D.C. with no ties to a current presidential campaign, explained the federal rules governing those blind trusts. "The Office of Government Ethics requires that a financial institution be appointed as the trustee and that the financial institution not be controlled by or have done business with the candidate," said Kelner. "It would preclude you from hiring your favorite lawyer as the trustee."
Bold text added by diarist.
Further, as has been documented on an obscure Great Orange Website, Romney has flip-flopped on the validity of blind trusts, calling them a ruse. I tell you, I'm shocked that Willard M. Romney criticized a Kennedy for doing something and then did it himself. Shocked!
But this is the tip of the iceberg. More below the Orange Squiggle of Power.
Taxes
Today the
NYT editorial board took Gov. Romney to task for not releasing his tax forms.
The campaign says Mr. Romney has received no tax benefits from his offshore shelters, a dubious assertion but one impossible to check without more disclosure. Mr. Romney said this week that he had no idea where the blind trust had put his money, and he dismissed the issue of the offshore investments, saying they were no more consequential than investing in a foreign car company.
A foreign investment, however, is not the same as an offshore tax shelter. A more conscientious politician would have urged his blind trusts to have nothing to do with shelters not available to the general public. And Mr. Romney is tarnishing an important political tradition — one set by his father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns in 1967 — by continuing to keep the sources of his income in the shadows.
Mitt doesn't just use a blind trust ... he's asking us to have blind trust in his integrity. He receives no tax advantages from his offshore investments? Hmmm. The NYT calls that dubious. I am no lawyer, but I will also doubt ... because as an engineer, I like actual numbers. Show me your work, Willard, and I'll believe your result.
Economic Plans
Further, Mr. Romney's own
website starts the section on jobs with this quote:
Mitt Romney will rebuild the foundations of the American economy on the principles of free enterprise, hard work, and innovation. His plan seeks to reduce taxes, spending, regulation, and government programs. It seeks to increase trade, energy production, human capital, and labor flexibility. It relinquishes power to the states instead of claiming to have the solution to every problem.
Again - he asks us to take his word for it. He says these policies will create jobs; he says that as a businessman he knows how jobs are created. Very well.
I would ask Gov. Romney to support this assertion. He claims he knows how to create jobs; I want him to show me, from his own tax forms, when and where he has created jobs, and how the marginal tax rates affected those decisions. Put up or shut up, Governor.
But no; Willard M. Romney asks instead for blind trust. He knows how to create jobs; he doesn't have to show us anything.
Bain
Gov. Romney also wants us to just trust him about when he left Bain Capital. He says he left in 1999 to "save" the Salt Lake Olympics; and this date matters to deflect some of the criticism leveled at Romney for some things Bain has done, both in investing in companies that offshore jobs, and investing in companies that provide services to abortion providers such as Planned Parenthood.
But research by TPM shows that either Mitt lied on forms filed with the SEC, or he lies to us about when he left Bain. Again - give your blind trust to Mitt, and don't believe those silly SEC forms.
Immigration
Would a hypothetical President Romney withdraw President Obama's executive order stopping deportations of high school graduates brought illegally to this country as children?
He won't say. He says he'll institute comprehensive reform ... but we don't know what that will look like.
Hispanics, Willard M. Romney asks you for your blind trust on this issue.
I could keep going. But I think I've made my point.
Willard M. Romney lies. He lies quite often. And yet so much of his campaign amounts to asking us for blind trust in his good intentions.
I don't buy it. I don't think America should buy it.