Romney To Release Tax Returns This Week
Mitt Romney is finally going to do something he should have done last week:
Gov. Mitt Romney said Sunday he will release his tax returns on Tuesday as he tries to pivot from an issue that dragged him down in his South Carolina primary loss to Newt Gingrich.
Romney said he’ll post his 2010 tax return and 2011 estimate online Tuesday, after he was hammered by his rivals and gave awkward debate answers last week as he said he would release his tax returns in April.
“I think we made a mistake holding off as long as we did,” Romney said in an interview on Fox News Sunday. “It was a distraction. We want to get back to the real issues of the campaign.”
Gee, do ya think?
“Romney said he’ll post his 2010 tax return and 2011 estimate online Tuesday”
Not gonna be enough. “Hey, Mitt, your dad released 12 years’ worth. How we gonna know these two are not just flukes??”
No other candidate has repeated what George Romney did in releasing so much information, I don’t see any reason why Romney should be bound by it
@Doug Mataconis: @Doug Mataconis:
Obama released his tax returns from 2000-2007, Clinton released her tax returns from 2000-2007. Actually, including her years as First Lady, Hillary Clinton’s tax returns for 16 years (1992-2007) have been released.
And no, 2 years won’t be enough for Romney.
sam is right: won’t work. All it does is point a finger at earlier years.
@PJ:
That may actually be a bit of a special case.
Instead why not pick a Republican from this primary.
Rick Perry released his tax returns all the way back to 1987.
So, no, 2 years won’t be enough.
Because Mitt is George’s son, that’s why. And there’s already enough comment that in many ways he’s not nearly enough like his old man.
@DRS:
George Romney was hardly a great campaigning in 67/68, I’m not sure Mitt should take all that much advice from his actions
“George Romney was hardly a great campaigning in 67/68, I’m not sure Mitt should take all that much advice from his actions”
Doug, dude, that was then, this is now.
Exactly my point. If Romney has already released several years of financial discourses, and he has, then I’m honestly not sure that a decades worth of tax returns is useful to any extent.
As I’ve said before, I personally don’t care about tax return, college transcripts, or any of the other nonsense we are constantly told Presidential candidates “must” make public.
Demands for DNA profiles should be along in a few years.
I echo what folks are saying above. It won’t be enough. Here’s the problem, releasing just 2010’s and 2011’s is the exact problem that his father warned about. Romney’s been running for those two years and there is a question whether he fudged the numbers (whether he actually did or didn’t) during those two years and he’s going to have to release returns when he WASN’T running.
@Doug Mataconis:
Doug, Romney’s returns very important because the American electorate (the 99% anyway) will have a HUGE problem being told, by a man who allegedly did everything he could to avoid paying taxes, they must sacrifice more.
Bad optics, y’know.
Doug: George Romney’s release of 12 years of tax records tells me (I don’t remember the man at all) that he was a straight shooter. Being compared favourably to his father is a problem Mitt should be praying to have.
@DRS:
George Romney tithed 19% of his income, his tax rate was about 30-40%, and including some other donations, I think he kept about a third of his income.
Mitt Romney will never be compared favorably to his father.
So bottom-line…he flip-flopped on this too.
Way to stand yer ground.
Republicans are such pu$$ies.
What is in the 2009 returns that he is so worried about?
He’s going to be hounded incessantly end up releasing the past 7 years or so, he should just do it now. Unless he’s hiding something.
And to add to the list of candidates who followed George Romney, when Clinton ran in 1992, he released 12 years of tax returns.