Reid: Bain Investor Told Me That Mitt Romney 'Didn't Pay Any Taxes For 10 Years'

[Politico]

It is hard to trust Reid once one sees the depiction of him in Scorsese's Casino.

Romney released over twenty years of tax returns to the McCain campaign in 2008. There is nothing to hide or he would not have agreed to such vetting with the McCain campaign. Furthermore, if Romney paid no taxes for ten years then the IRS would be all over him much like the Feds were all over John Edwards. Of course, Romney paid every dime he owed and not a penny more. Romney is a law-abiding citizen who paid more in taxes last year than most people on this board will pay in their entire lifetime (hell, he probably paid more in taxes than most liberals on this board will earn in their entire lifetime).

With that said, if I were in charge of Romney's campaign I would release the returns right now during the middle of the Olympics, before Joe Voter starts paying serious attention to the campaigns. The day after the Colorado Movie Massacre would have been ideal timing. The ball was dropped, so to speak.

[Politico]

Winfield, could you please wrap your head around the idea that if Romney doesn't give us his tax returns, we can't prove a goddamn thing. I admit that Reid's claim is probably baseless, but you can't just yell "Where's the proof?" at everything we say about his taxes because he's obviously hiding something!

What you should be able to prove is which ten years you are talking about?

Reid's source is Romney's parents' milkman. The years in question are 1953-1963. That's right: Romney did not pay any taxes during the entirety of the Eisenhower and Kennedy Administrations! It was not until after LBJ's Tax Reduction Act did Romney start paying taxes. WHY DID ROMNEY NOT PAY TAXES FOR TEN YEARS?

[Politico]

Winfield, could you please wrap your head around the idea that if Romney doesn't give us his tax returns, we can't prove a goddamn thing. I admit that Reid's claim is probably baseless, but you can't just yell "Where's the proof?" at everything we say about his taxes because he's obviously hiding something!

What you should be able to prove is which ten years you are talking about?

I F[INKS]ING CAN'T! There are no tax returns with which I can prove it, but there is reason to believe that he has used shady financial tactics in the past, most notably the shady financial tactics displayed in the one year he gave us.

There's obviously a reason he hasn't shown them to us, otherwise he would have.

There is nothing shady about what Romney did. It's called following the law, and not paying a penny more than you have to in the process. It's called being smart.

Being financially successful and responsible does not equate to being shady.

It is a sad day in America when success is shameful and failure is celebrated...

[Politico]

Obvious and desperate attempt to distract and divert attention away from the success of picking Ryan.

The tax returns issue is old news. Obama 2012 has morphed into this weird campaign with only one purpose: Getting Romney to release his tax returns. No wonder people are loving the Ryan selection. It shows Romney is about ideas and results, not distractions. Hopefully somebody in the Obama IRS will simply leak Romney's tax returns, creating a whole host of problems for Obama and Co.

[Politico]

I can't wait until the dossier of 23 years of tax returns (1984-2007), provided to the McCain vetting team, is released

[Politico]

Seems Romney has answered the charge regarding the last ten years. The ball is now back in Reid's court. I would behoove Reid to now specify which years, of any, in the last ten years to which he was referring. Then, we could know for certain whom the liar is.

Somehow, I don't think Reid will. Everyone can draw their own conclusions about whom the liar is.

Ball is still in Romney's court.  Romney has a record of lying about his taxes. Just saying he paid taxes while offering zero proof doesn't get him off the hook.

Nor, does Reid citing an unnamed "source" get him off the hook for lying. My point is that if Reid is telling the truth he has the resource of naming the specific year Romney paid no taxes and lied about it. Reid's failure to step forward and specify which years Romney allegedly paid no tax indicates that Reid in fact is the person lying.

Yeah, because even if Romney releases the dossier, Reid will just turn around and say, "HE DIDN'T PAY TAXES FROM 1973-1983!" And how the hell is Romney going to be able to dig back through his files and find tax returns that are over three decades old?

Reid needs to specify the years or shut the [Inks] up. No wonder so many people do not want to run for president anymore.

[Politico]

Interesting how every Democrat here will acknowledge that Reid is probably at least incorrect, but no Republican will acknowledge that something at least seems slightly suspicious about Romney's steadfast refusal to do something every presidential candidate has automatically done for 50+ years.

No presidential candidate has ever released 30+ years of tax returns, which is what would be necessary to cover the duration of Romney's association with Bain.

Why didn't Obama release his birth certificate in 2008?

[Politico]

Interesting how every Democrat here will acknowledge that Reid is probably at least incorrect, but no Republican will acknowledge that something at least seems slightly suspicious about Romney's steadfast refusal to do something every presidential candidate has automatically done for 50+ years.

No presidential candidate has ever released 30+ years of tax returns, which is what would be necessary to cover the duration of Romney's association with Bain.

Why didn't Obama release his birth certificate in 2008?

You seriously are going Birther on us?

Absolutely not. My point is that Obama did not release his official birth certificate until 2011. Your reasoning on Romney is completely in line with the "Birther" reasoning in 2008 (i.e., "he won't release it so he must be hiding something!"). They claimed Obama was hiding something when he was not. The same applies to Romney and his tax returns. Romney has not broken the law, but he is wealthy and does not want to feed the narrative that he is "out-of-touch" wealthy. That is why they have yet to release the returns. It is nothing nefarious.

[Politico]

Interesting how every Democrat here will acknowledge that Reid is probably at least incorrect, but no Republican will acknowledge that something at least seems slightly suspicious about Romney's steadfast refusal to do something every presidential candidate has automatically done for 50+ years.

No presidential candidate has ever released 30+ years of tax returns, which is what would be necessary to cover the duration of Romney's association with Bain.

Why didn't Obama release his birth certificate in 2008?

You seriously are going Birther on us?

Absolutely not. My point is that Obama did not release his official birth certificate until 2011. Your reasoning on Romney is completely in line with the "Birther" reasoning in 2008 (i.e., "he won't release it so he must be hiding something!"). They claimed Obama was hiding something when he was not. The same applies to Romney and his tax returns. Romney has not broken the law, but he is wealthy and does not want to feed the narrative that he is "out-of-touch" wealthy. That is why they have yet to release the returns.

Obama released this birth certificate in June 2008.

What was the big hoopla at the dinner before the assassination of Bin Laden? As I recall, Obama never released his official "long-form" birth certificate until 2011. I may be recalling incorrectly.

I never bought into the "Birther" arguments, but it is interesting that you have adopted the same reasoning as them with regards to Romney's tax returns. I am consistent when it comes to Romney's tax returns and Obama's "long-form" birth certificate.