NCR: Romney's Taxes and "All You People" -- "like a Hitchcock movie" [View all]

[pnwmom]

http://ncronline.org/blogs/distinctly-catholic/romneys-taxes-all-you-people

by Michael Sean Winters on Jul. 20, 2012 Distinctly Catholic

When Mrs. Ann Romney told Robin Roberts on ABC’s “Good Morning America” that she and her husband, presidential candidate Mitt Romney, had “given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life,” she betrayed a grave misunderstanding on modern democracy. Her comment lacked the cluelessness of Marie Antoinette’s famous, and likely apocryphal, “let them eat cake” line, but the two remarks share a common lack: accountability.

In a democracy, we the people get to decide what we think we need to know about those who aspire to public office. And the extent to which we are entitled to invade a person’s privacy is directly correlative to the amount of power we are being asked to entrust to the person seeking office. In the case of the modern presidency, Mr. Romney seeks a great deal of power and consequently we are entitled to know a great deal about his past.

No one knows what Mr. Romney’s tax records will show. But, his reluctance to share them demonstrates something we most definitely want to know about an aspirant for Chief Magistrate: He believes he is entitled to more privacy than an aspirant for such a public office is so entitled.

The kerfuffle over Mr. Romney’s refusal to release more of his tax returns indicates something else: His campaign is not ready for prime time. The issue is not going away. Soon, he will name a vice presidential candidate. How many years of tax returns will the person chosen decide to disclose? Did the person chosen already release more of their tax returns when seeking a prior office? Mr. Romney has promised to release his tax returns for 2011. Whenever he decides to do so – he has promised by October – the issue will come back. Is there no one in the entire Romney campaign structure that can sit the candidate down and explain that the day of reckoning is unavoidable?

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