President Obama's Camp On Romney’s Latest Tax Talk: Prove It

[cal04]

Last edited Thu Aug 16, 2012, 02:01 PM - Edit history (1)

http://livewire.talkingpointsmemo.com/entry/obama-camp-on-romneys-latest-tax-talk-prove

(snip)
Romney "has forfeited the right to have us take him just at his word," Obama spokesperson Lis Smith said. Her full statement:

“Mitt Romney today said that he did indeed ‘go back and look’ at his tax returns and that he never paid less than 13% in taxes in any year over the past decade. Since there is substantial reason to doubt his claims, we have a simple message for him: prove it. Even though he’s invested millions in foreign tax havens, offshore shell corporations, and a Swiss bank account, he’s still asking the American people to trust him. However, given Mitt Romney's secrecy about his returns, coupled with the revelations in just the one return we have seen to date and the inconsistencies between this one return and his other financial disclosures, he has forfeited the right to have us take him just at his word.”

http://www.npr.org/templates/story/story.php?storyId=158909304
(snip)
Obama campaign Lis Smith responded by telling Romney to "prove it."

"He has forfeited the right to have us take him just at his word," Smith said.

White House spokesman Jay Carney declined to comment on Romney's tax rate. He said Democratic President Barack Obama believes "the tradition for presidential candidates to put forward multiple years of their tax returns is a useful and valuable one. Not always comfortable."

[flamingdem]

1. This ploy by Romney is based on knowing that no one can leak copies of his returns

Thus, he can lie his ass off

Even if returns "appear" they will be called out as fake.

So he can do this despicable thing, stand there and make a statement that those who are honest would have to believe, because they CANNOT IMAGINE being in his position and making a blatant lie.

Well even if caught Romney will not go to prison over it.. so he's risking a full on lie.

Chris Allissa on msnbc was just that honest person who sat there exclaiming that now it must be true because Romney said it was true ... (that he paid 13%).

The Obama campaign knows better and also has the smart strategy in place, show the damn taxes!

[Rosa Luxemburg]

2. Voters are wary of secrecy and even his own party members are asking him

[Progressive dog]

3. And he still pays Mass. income tax-not

These truth tellers would never lie. Of course not. Where do I get my sarcasm thingy?

[DallasNE]

11. This Is Important

Because Romney votes in Mass. He can't be a non-resident for tax purposes and a resident for voting purposes. That would be breaking the law.

[Ruby the Liberal]

4. Multiple Choice Mitt lost the benefit of the doubt long ago.

Well played, OFA. Stay on this one!

[uponit7771]

5. *****************INCOME TAXES!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!*********

Of course he's paid more than 13% in taxes overall!!!

He could've paid state taxes or taxes on his house etc but Americans are talking about his INCOME TAXES which he can hide off shore...

[Cognitive_Resonance]

6. It's great to see Romney's tax problems remain front and center. He sent Queen Ann(toinette) out

yesterday to tell unconvincing lies. He's out himself today claiming to have not paid less than 13%, but unwilling to offer the readily available proof. Bottom line is they are compelled to talk about it, and it's not going away. Beautiful!

[Dawgs]

7. Why is everyone missing that fact that paying only 13% is ridiculous? n/t

[snappyturtle]

9. YES!!!! When I was working 13 hrs./day, 7 days a week for 50 weeks @ yr.

I paid more than that! He's thieved the U.S. imho.

[Skink]

8. The creative accounting is well underway.

[Bernardo de La Paz]

13. Probably Rmoney wrote off almost all of his income and paid 13 % on almost 0 income

Probably Rmoney used tax lawyers and accountants and offshore bank accounts to shuffle money and paper losses so that he could declare almost no income. Then he can pay 13% tax rates on apparent poverty level income, all the while living high off the hog and getting richer.

Sending a horse to London? An expense! Going to London to watch? A supervisory expense!

[SunsetDreams]

10. I totally missed this until now K&R

I just posted an OP and deleted mine.

[33Greeper]

12. Dear Mr. Romney,

We have contacted you now several times regarding your missing tax returns for years ending 2000 through 2011. To date we have only received a partial return for year ending 2010 and a “projection” of taxes for year ending 2011. Unfortunately this is inadequate documentation to evaluate your financial history and allegiances, which are critical to understand your previous behavi
or.

Given the disappointing Swiss bank accounts and Cayman shell corporations that we have previously discussed, these documents are now critical to better understand your past financial background. This understanding is in turn required in order to make an informed decision regarding your capability to perform the financially sensitive position that you have applied for.

If you have recently released the tax returns for years ending 2000-2011, please accept our sincere apology and we will continue to evaluate your application. If however we do not receive your tax records for the years ending 2000-2011 , we regret that we will be unable to process your application, and unable to consider you for the position for which you have applied.

If this is the case, we want to send our appreciation for your effort and application and encourage you to reapply when you are better able to meet with our admittedly high standards.

Thank You and Best Regards.
The American People."

[Amonester]

14. hehehe

[Lugnut]

20. That's perfect!

We don't buy pigs in pokes.

[Spirochete]

15. Well, that's hardly fair...

after all, when President Obama stated that he had been born in Hawaii, to a man they all said "OK, that's good enough for me..."

Oh, wait - they didn't...

[Historic NY]

16. Trust but verify, the what he should say the wingers heads would burst.

[Bort336]

17. How stupid does he think we are?

Would this be his response to a Bain investor on buying into one of his outsourcing schemes?

The United States is a $ 16 trillion dollar enterprise and he wants us to make a decision on turning this enterprise over to him on the basis of a two sentence statement about the taxes he paid.

What kind of taxes?
taxes to foreign governments?
fees to swiss banks he counts as taxes?
real estate taxes?
state taxes?

He didn't say he paid more then 13 % in income taxes, did he?

We know about his horsey tax wright off which is worth almost twice as much as the average American's income for a single year. ( $ 77.000 > $ 43,000)

How many of these things does he "invest in" to keep his taxes so low?

Thinking people want to know. We want to keep our taxes low too.

We aren't the maim street media - did you hear andrea mitchell closing the tax case after his statement. Heard her on the tv but can't find a link yet.

[Wednesdays]

18. The sure sign of a losing campaign

rMoney constantly having to play defense.

[librechik]

19. It's a matter of fairness. Everyone else in his rank has volunteered multiple years of returns.

What makes him so different that he should except himself from what everybody else has done?
Why is he so special that he doesn't have to do what the rest of the team has done? If this were junior high school sports Romney would have to stay back at the dorm and let everybody else play without him.

[olegramps]

21. Did say Income Taxes or just taxes?

[lumberjack_jeff]

22. Good. It's long past time where we can simply pretend that republicans aren't liars. n/t