Where Romney's Money Lives

[Perknose]

Investigatory article on Mitten's money from Vanity Fair.

I could list 5-6 points that should give anyone some pause. Just read the article and see for yourself, it's not that long.

My comment is: No wonder Mittens wants to keep the details of how got so wealthy secret.

Legal or not, his excellent adventures with Bain Capital is a window on how the super rich get to play by their own, separate rules, and to amass and keep so much more of their speech money, the rest of us suckers be damned.

Bonus irony:

...It was Mitt’s father, George Romney, who released 12 years of tax returns, in November 1967, just ahead of his presidential campaign, thereby setting a precedent that nearly every presidential candidate since has either willingly or unwillingly been subject to. George, then the governor of Michigan, explained why he was releasing so many years’ worth, saying, “One year could be a fluke, perhaps done for show.”

But his son declined to release any returns through one unsuccessful race for the U.S. Senate, in 1994, one successful run for Massachusetts governor, in 2002, and an aborted bid for the Republican Party presidential nomination, in 2008. Just before the Iowa caucus last December, Mitt told MSNBC, “I don’t intend to release the tax returns. I don’t,” but finally, on January 24, 2012—after intense goading by fellow Republican candidates Newt Gingrich and Rick Perry—he released his 2010 tax return and an estimate for 2011.

These, plus the mandatory financial disclosures filed with the Office of Government Ethics and released last August, raise many questions. A full 55 pages in his 2010 return are devoted to reporting his transactions with foreign entities. “What Romney does not get,” says Jack Blum, a veteran Washington lawyer and offshore expert, “is that this stuff is weird.”

The media soon noticed Romney’s familiarity with foreign tax havens. A $3 million Swiss bank account appeared in the 2010 returns, then winked out of existence in 2011 after the trustee closed it, as if to remind us of George Romney’s warning that one or two tax returns can provide a misleading picture. Ed Kleinbard, a professor of tax law at the University of Southern California, says the Swiss account “has political but not tax-policy resonance,” since it—like many other Romney investments—constituted a bet against the U.S. dollar, an odd thing for a presidential candidate to do. The Obama campaign provided a helpful world map pointing to the tax havens Bermuda, Luxembourg, and the Cayman Islands, where Romney and his family have assets, each with the tagline “Value: not disclosed in tax returns.”

 

[blankslate]

also...

http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn.co...ief-says-romneys-personal-finances-fair-game/

The chief of the House Republicans' campaign arm said Thursday it was "fair game" for people to ask for more information about GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney's personal financial records.

"His personal finances, the way he does things, his record, are fair game," Texas Republican Pete Sessions told CNN.

When a member of your own party starts on this you know it's probably not going away unless you release stuff.

 

[Phokus]

Obama should announce he's releasing the last 12 years of his tax returns just like Mitt's father, that would be some symbolic embarrassment for Mitt.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

Mitt will release his tax returns. He just needs a few more weeks for his team to fudge them so they are suitable for release to the "little people".

 

[Icepick]

What a scoundrel. Definitely not a person I would select to represent my country to the rest of the world.

 

[mshan]

Makes Gordon Gekko look like a saint.

When U. S. was criticizing Switzerland as an off shore tax haven, someone seemingly in the know said what about Florida and Delaware.

Plus there was this article on real estate I read that said that is only market where there is no check on whether criminal money was being used, thus why so many Russians were buying really expensive homes in Manhattan. Buy a really expensive home in U. S. and you get free laundering of your money.

 

[MomentsofSanity]

Obama should announce he's releasing the last 12 years of his tax returns just like Mitt's father, that would be some symbolic embarrassment for Mitt.

You mean like this?

http://www.barackobama.com/tax-returns/

 

[Icepick]

So he's hiding his fortune in offshore accounts. So is this what the Republicans mean when they say that taxing the incomes wealthy people is hurting the "job creators?" Why isn't he spending some of his fortune to "create jobs?" Apparently a vote for Romney is a vote for supporting wealthy Americans in hiding their money in offshore "tax havens" so that the tax burden can be placed more squarely on the middle and lower classes.

 

[Lemon law]

Does anyone wonder how Mittems made his money? You don't go from being a starved graduate student at business school to a bazzillionare without foreclosing on widows and orphans and stealing candy from babies.

If you think Dick Cheney was the best politician Halliburton could buy, you ain't seen what Romney can still do for Bain Capital.

Out sourcing and selling off the USA will be the biggest business coup in the history of capitalism. And Romney is the man with the plan. Why just corner the silver market or the ice market or the sugar market to get rich at the expense of everyone else? Forget villains like Jay Gould or JP Morgan, they were so penny antie, Mitt Romney truly thinks big. Support Mitt or else, or he will sell you off really cheap.

 

[blankslate]

Please dems, keep up with the tax return idiocy, please!

Governor Romney should listen to his father.

 

[pcgeek11]

"Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals."

He isn't required to any more than any of us...

 

[HomerJS]

Obama should release his school transcripts. That would be some embarrassment for Obama!

Yeah, this is just as stupid as demanding the tax returns.

Why do you think George Romney is stupid??

 

[HomerJS]

Dead people have a very low IQ..roughly zero.

The hate for George flows through you!

 

[Phokus]

You mean like this?

http://www.barackobama.com/tax-returns/

Oh snap, didn't know 12 years was actually a tradition.

 

[HomerJS]

No, that is urine...I had a lot of coffee today. I am surprised you cannot feel the difference between hate and urine when they splash onto you. Odd.


But the thread is started to go off topic into your fetishes. Lets return it to stupid people saying stupid things about tax returns and how the nations will burn to the ground if their stupid demands to see them are not met.

Why don't we just go to asking nothing of candidates. You know how trustworthy politicans are.

 

[Lemon law]

"Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals."

He isn't required to any more than any of us...

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Gotta admit you are right here, Mittens is not legally required to disclose his tax returns, but if Mittens fails to disclose, he may not get the vote of you or me.

Mitt Romney is running for President and voters want to know how he made his money. Its basic American political tradition, if you run for political office you disclose your income tax returns. Failing to do so, is going to raise suspicions.

Its bad enough that Mitt may have already commuted false felony disclosures to the SEC, but failing to disclose his tax returns may be the final nail on the candidacy of Mitt Romney.

But point granted PCgeek, if you are not concerned you can vote for Mitt, but if a lot of people are concerned about the lack of disclosure of Mitt, your opinion will not matter.

 

[blankslate]

His father is dead. His father cannot say anything.

wow way to purposefully miss the point...

Governor Romney should follow the example of his father then.

 

[cubby1223]

If this is the worst you have against Romney, sorry, but you guys are just sad.

 

[blankslate]

If this is the worst you have against Romney, sorry, but you guys are just sad.

What's sad is Governor Romney demanding an apology when he could shut critics up by releasing the tax returns....

 

[cubby1223]

What's sad is Governor Romney demanding an apology when he could shut critics up by releasing the tax returns....

You're so cute when you believe your opinions are important in this world!

 

[blankslate]

You're so cute when you believe your opinions are important in this world! cubby1223 is online now Report Post

You're so cute that you don't realize how much that statement applies to you as well.

 

[boomerang]

What a sad state our country is in when success is a bad thing that is frowned upon and painted to be a detriment, albeit by a militant minority. All the while, a man whose presidential term is painted with abject failure is exhalted, again by the same militant minority.

If Mr. Romney has broken laws, charge him and prosecute him to the fullest extent of those laws. Otherwise, continue to appeal to the sensibilities of weak minds with stories like these. Do it often enough, and those still capable of using their brains will be turned off from the community organizer who excels at running his mouth and nothing else.

The left is circling the wagons in a circle jerk of impotence that the rest of us are laughing at. The desperation can be cut with a knife.

 

[K1052]

What a sad state our country is in when success is a bad thing that is frowned upon and painted to be a detriment, albeit by a militant minority. All the while, a man whose presidential term is painted with abject failure is exhalted, again by the same militant minority.

If Mr. Romney has broken laws, charge him and prosecute him to the fullest extent of those laws. Otherwise, continue to appeal to the sensibilities of weak minds with stories like these. Do it often enough, and those still capable of using their brains will be turned off from the community organizer who excels at running his mouth and nothing else.

The left is circling the wagons in a circle jerk of impotence that the rest of us are laughing at. The desperation can be cut with a knife.

As a candidate running on the main issues of the economy and taxes looking at the business and financial background he is touting is more than fair game. I don't think anything Mitt did was illegal however it's going to be super hard to sell himself as a man of the people if Bain looted companies, promoted offshoring of US jobs, and he personally used numerous foreign tax shelters and highly complex methods to lower his tax rate on the enormous wealth he accumulated from doing so.

I highly doubt there is anything untoward in his returns however his actual worth, the tax rate paid on it, and the mechanisms used that would most likely be exposed would probably play right into Obama's hands. On the other hand refusing to release just gives them more ammo that he is hiding something. The massively inconvenient fact that his own father started this tradition merely adds fuel to the fire.

 

[Charles Kozierok]

What a sad state our country is in when success is a bad thing that is frowned upon and painted to be a detriment, albeit by a militant minority.

Your usual pile of fact-free, melodramatic bullshit.

I don't see anyone having a problem with "success" in general. In fact, rich movie stars, athletes and entrepreneurs are some of the most celebrated and respected people in the country. I could name names, but there isn't even any need.

What people frown upon is success that is gained through dubious and unethical means. People frown upon those who play games, act dishonestly, and hide their activities and finances while running for public office.

The problem isn't Mitt Romney's money. The problem is Mitt Romney.

All the while, a man whose presidential term is painted with abject failure is exhalted, again by the same militant minority.

Exalted? More bullshit.

If Obama's term had gone better, we wouldn't even be having this discussion -- the election would be a repeat of 1996.

Polling shows clearly that Obama's job approval is mediocre, but he's polling above the approval figures. What this means is obvious: a lot of people don't think Obama is that hot, they just don't see a better alternative. Put me in that category.

Otherwise, continue to appeal to the sensibilities of weak minds with stories like these. Do it often enough, and those still capable of using their brains will be turned off from the community organizer who excels at running his mouth and nothing else.

Whistling past the graveyard. Loudly.

This attack is making the right panic specifically because it is effective. Even if he hasn't done anything technically illegal, it makes him look (even more) like a self-entitled weasel who plays by his own rules and only wants to make more money for himself and his rich friends.

The left is circling the wagons in a circle jerk of impotence that the rest of us are laughing at. The desperation can be cut with a knife.

The only desperation I see is from self-deluded right-wingers screaming at the top of their lungs: "Pay no attention to that man behind the curtain."

 

[Charles Kozierok]

Obama should release his school transcripts. That would be some embarrassment for Obama!

Yeah, this is just as stupid as demanding the tax returns.

Obama isn't running for president based on school transcripts from a quarter century ago.

Romney is running for president based on his track record as a businessman.