Sep 21, 2012 No Comments ›› Pat Dollard
Excerpted from The Briefing Room: Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (R-Nev.) doubled down on criticism of Mitt Romney’s personal finances hours after the presumptive Republican nominee presented evidence that would seemingly undermine Reid’s frequent charge that a “source” told him Romney had avoided paying federal income taxes.
In a release of documents Friday, the accounting firm responsible for preparing Romney’s taxes affirmed that he had never paid less than 13 percent in effective federal income taxes since 1990.
The Romney campaign later circulated a news report commenting that “it appears that Harry Reid’s infamous source alleging that Romney paid nothing in taxes for 10 years was wrong.”
But Reid seized on a quirk of Romney’s 2011 taxes — one of only two years the candidate has fully documented — to argue that Romney could be “manipulating” the data.
From statement released by Reid’s office today:
“The information released today reveals that Mitt Romney manipulated one of the only two years of tax returns he’s seen fit to show the American people – and then only to ‘conform’ with his public statements. That raises the question: what else in those returns has Romney manipulated? We already know Romney has money in tax havens in Switzerland, Bermuda and the Cayman Islands. What we don’t know is why he refuses to be straight with the American people about the choices he’s made in his financial life. When will the American people see the returns he filed before he was running for president? Governor Romney is showing us what he does when the public is looking. The true test of his character would be to show what he did when everyone was not looking at his taxes.
“It’s also galling to see the creative accounting Mitt Romney applied to his own tax returns only days after learning of his insulting comments that seniors, soldiers and hard-working parents don’t pay enough taxes. Once again, we see Mitt Romney is out of touch with middle class families, who don’t have the luxury of accounting wizards and foreign tax shelters. It’s obvious he believes in two sets of rules: one for him, and one for the middle class. He says he wants to be president for only half the people but he acts like he only cares for the top two percent. Despite the fiscal cliff looming in just over three months, Mitt Romney refuses to explain the details of his tax policy. Will the policies he proposes benefit all Americans, or only multi-millionaires like him?”
