When will Obama team go after Romney for carried interest lobbying?

[Likely Voter]

I think the attacks on Romney this summer are leading up to a bigger salvo. This summer we have seen the Obama team tie Romney to Bain outsourcing and attack on Romney on his taxes (and tax returns). They have established two things in the minds of swing voters: 1. Romney= Bain and 2. Romney has a low tax rate.

I think the next step will be to go after the tax loophole that allows Romney and others who earn income from private equity and hedge funds, but pay taxes on that income as a capital gain (aka "carried interest"). This loophole only benefits a handful of people in America, but costs the treasury about $2B/year. Ruport Murdoch famous called carried interest "a racket"
http://money.cnn.com/2012/01/20/news/economy/murdoch_carried_interest/index.htm
This WSJ article covers both sides of the argument
http://online.wsj.com/article/SB10001424052702304811304577370062392150338.html

In recent years Congress has tried to close the loophole (including some Republicans like Grassley) but Bain and other fund managers spent millions to halt any changes, usually by keeping it from leaving the Senate Finance Committee. Of course Obama has supported ending the loophole and Mitt Romney opposes ending it.

This issue came up in January after Romney's taxes were first released but none of his GOP opponents wanted to attack him on it. At the time Gingrich was his biggest foe but Newt wanted to cut cap gains to zero so he wasn't going to go after this loophole.

Now Mitt Romney likes to say that he plays by the rules and pays the legal tax rates, which is true. He can't be blamed for taking advantage of the rules that are in place. However most Americans will likely view the rule as one of those unfair tax loopholes for the rich, and in this case Romney's firm lobbied to help him keep his loophole, which is not going to play well either.

It is a complicated issue but it can be simplified down to something like "Mitt Romney's firm spent millions lobbying congress to prevent bipartisan effort to close a loophole that lets him and other Wall Street Financiers avoid paying their fair share in taxes"

The Daily Show also took a crack at explaining it:
http://www.thedailyshow.com/watch/tue-january-24-2012/indecision-2012---i-know-what-you-did-last-quarter
(I could see the clip of Grassley decrying the lobbyists hired to keep the loophole could end up in a commercial)

Anyone else think this attack on Romney lobbying for carried interest is coming? Or is it too complicated of an argument to make for the low information swing voters they are trying to go after?


EDIT: Carried Interest mentioned in recent ad
I hadn't seen this ad, but 3 weeks ago the Obama team released an ad on Romney's taxes where carried interest is mentioned along with his giant IRA and other things, but it made no mention of the lobbying to protect the loophole.
http://youtu.be/uMo5pykT4uw

I still think that the lobbying to protect the loophole is the more damaging thing here.

[Likely Voter]

I admit it is a complex issue and I kind of doubt that "Carried Interest" will be a buzzword for the election. However if they can rebrand it as an "Unfair Wall Street Loophole" I think it could have legs. Last week Obama's team launched a new ad hitting Romney for his low tax rate, but it begged the question: Why is his tax rate so low? Even most of the Wall Street fatcats still pay the highest rate on their huge bonuses, this thing truly is just a gift to the hedge fund and private equity mangers of the world. They essentially bought themselves their own special tax rate. It is also interesting how other super-rich people, including Warren Buffett and Rupert Murdoch have called this thing out as a total scam.


And I think there is a kicker here in that Bain actively lobbied to keep their loophole. And Romney is on the record as being against the loophole being struck. This should be the kind of thing that independents could get riled up about. I imagine the original tea party types (before it was coopted) would fume at this kind of super rich guys buying influence to stay super rich, and right in the middle of an economic downturn that was caused by some of these same super rich.