Looks like today, it was Ann Romney’s turn to try to help her husband out of this tax pickle, and boy howdy, did she fail. Big time:
“You know, you should really look at where Mitt has led his life, and where he’s been financially,” Ann Romney told ABC’s Robin Roberts. “He’s a very generous person. We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year. Do you think that is the kind of person who is trying to hide things, or do things? No. He is so good about it. Then, when he was governor of Massachusetts, didn’t take a salary for four years.”
“We’ve given all you people need to know and understand about our financial situation and how we live our life,” the candidate’s wife added.
Really, Ann. Really. “You people?”
[full post here]
Richard
LOL.
hildebrand
Ann Romney is the gift that keeps on giving.
smedley
Ya know, their 2010 tax return is available for perusal by we people. It shows that Ann was listed as the employer of four domestic employees on Schedule H. It shows that Ann paid those four employees the whopping sum of $20,600 in 2010. So, yeah, they are very generous people.
Steeplejack
@ABL 2.0:
Blockquote fail in your expanded piece at ABLC. You’ve got your response in the indent with Ann Romney’s quote.
Zifnab
God bless the Romneys and their inability to just shut the hell up and let an issue die.
jl
The potential first lady charm campaign begins.
Will be an interesting contrast to Michelle Obama. Or for that matter, Laura Bush. Or Hilary. Have to back to Barbs to get a character so ‘interesting’.
Edit: I also noted some internet news stories on her MS diagnosis. So, that angle is getting attention too. How to prepare for the next four months? Probably, should find pics of old train wrecks on the internet. that will be our public debate over next four months.
I am thinking about learning to tolerate larger doses of hard likker. It will be either my stomach or my brain this year.
Richard
Tithing to the Church won’t save your soul, Mitt.
danimal
How long before Charles Pierce picks up on this one?? Oh, nevermind. Sincerely, The Help
Linda Featheringill
Did Romney really refuse a salary from Massachusetts during his term of office?
jurassicpork
Ann Romney is the genuine article, another vicious Mike Flannigan exclusive.
henrythefifth
I read it somewhere else, and mention it here b/c Marie Antoinette Romney raised it, but what if part of the reason Mittens doesn’t want to disclose his taxes is that he’s not giving his church 10% of the few hundred million he’s got? Technically, it’s not realized income yet (I’m sure he’d argue).
An interesting aside.
encephalopath
“You [little] people…”
Violet
She’s their secret weapon!
schrodinger's cat
For someone who has elebenty millions, her hair sure does look a little weird.
Rob in CT
I’m sure she means the media with “you people.” I have no doubt she & Mitt have absolute contempt for reporters. Hell, I do too and I’m not a MoTU running for POTUS.
The thing is… even the return they released is emblematic of the failure of our tax code. The one they carefully structured to be acceptable to “you people.”
They paid a ~14% tax rate on over $20 million in earnings (capital gains, mostly, I believe). This should result in serious scrutiny of the 15% “long-term” (more than 1 year) capital gains rate. Calls to raise it. Calls to adjust capital gains to inflation and tax it as normal income. And sure, some of us do say those things. But it gets very little traction. “You people” (the media) are largely fine with it.
taylormattd
That’s it. Now I will “probably” vote for Obama.
quannlace
Well yes, that sounds admirable untill you realize he could only do that CAUSE HE ALREADY HAD MORE MONEY THAN GOD!
a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q)
@hildebrand: I wish I could say it better.
@smedley: That needs to be splattered across news far and wide. Approx $5K each, gross. Less than she pays to ship her horse to London, or less than she pays her trainer/rider, per quarter (estimated, based on industry standards at that level).
Shinobi
I keep thinking I am misreading it and that she said “We’ve give you all people need to know.” It’s amazing how reversing just two words completely changes the tone of that sentence.
PaulW
Well, it’s true. Next we’ll be asking for nail clippings or hair samples, and after that who knows, we’ll come knocking on the door for hand-me-downs…
g
She honestly thinks it’s like the application to join the country club, instead of a job application.
Violet
This part of the interview really gets me too:
“Does he seem like the kind of person who is trying to hide things?” Why, yes, he does! These people suck at PR. First Rove says Romney’s a felon, then Ann specifically asks the question everyone is asking, “Do you think he’s hiding things?” Just terrible.
And then “He is so good about it”? What is that mess? That’s the kind of thing you say about your teenager picking up their socks off the floor, not a billionaire paying taxes properly.
ABL
@Steeplejack: Fix’d thanks! I’ve been trying to blog more on my iPad so that I can get used to it. It’s slow going.
handy
@quannlace:
Alls I can say is: must be nice.
Rommie
It’s beautiful, not only is there the You People dismissal by their betters, but a We’ve Given All You Need to Know brushoff by our superiors. How dare you question our authoritah?
Brachiator
I’ve long been on record that candidate’s wives should be left alone. I also think that the role of First Lady is ridiculous and primitive, and any notion of it being some kind of official position should be rejected.
On the other hand, Mrs Romney didn’t just step into it, she jumped into the horseshit pile head first.
Damn, it sure looks as though Mittens is hiding behind his wife.
And you people …
Sweet Moses, what a bunch of tools. Thurston Howell brand tools.
Violet
Marie Ann-toinette Romney. Fits perfectly.
Bruce S
Yeah…she’s right. They’ve given me all I need to know. That comment pretty much nailed it. I’m good.
Shinobi
Now that I listen to the interview, you can barely hear the “you” it might actually have been just a pause or a catch as she started to say something else and chose a different word. I think this is really a transcription issue.
I am not like, a huge fan, of the Romneys, but this is making mountains out of imaginary anthills.
The fact that she went on about how opening up their tax returns would just provide more negative fodder for the media is a much more salient point. They are clearly afraid of something in those returns.
Violet
@Brachiator: Mitt’s hiding behind Ann’s skirt.
@Rob in CT: I think she means the media too. But it’s so telling that she seems oblivious that it’s the American people who want to see them so that they can make an informed judgement on the fitness of her husband for the office of President. Why should we just take their word for it?
Bokonon
I think the plan was this: have Ann Romney take the lead in stonewalling the release of any further information about the Romney’s investments, tax shelters, offshore bank accounts, and other personal finances. And then Mitt Romney could stand up behind the podium, put on his angry face, and claim that any further criticisms of his refusal to release his tax records are ATTACKS ON HIS WIFE and ATTACKS ON HIS FAMILY.
The party faithful love that sort of stuff – it fits right into their narrative about Chicago-style thuggery, and liberals hating success and hating families and being vicious, unprincipled people and all.
And the media (or at least their editors) usually get cold feet.
But perhaps Ann just stepped all over that cute little plan.
“You people” indeed. Did Ann Romney spit and sneer when she said this? And did she then spin on her heels and walk away, with a rustle of silk gowns and a flash of her diamond tiara?
Rob in CT
Hmm. “4 domestic employees for $20k” doesn’t tell us how many hours those people worked.
If you have 4 people who each work 10 hours/week and that adds up to $20k, that’s about $10/hour. Most likely w/o any benefits. Pretty low pay. But that’s all guesswork by me. Could be that there were four different people doing the same 20 hour/week job over the course of the tax year. In which case that’s almost $20/hour, which is pretty solid.
danielx
“You people” clearly don’t know your place, which is groveling for whatever crumbs the Romneys deign to drop in your path.
Cheap Jim
Isn’t he required to give 10% to the church or he isn’t allowed to go to Heaven or Fomalhaut or wherever it is? I mean, that makes it more of an entrance fee than charity.
Mnemosyne
@Shinobi:
And? As other people have pointed out, the Obamas have released something like 15 years’ worth of their tax returns. Are the Romneys supposed to get a free pass for releasing theirs because maybe the media won’t like something in them?
I think Bokonon is right — they’re sending Ann out to be the surrogate so that any further questions about the Romneys’ taxes can be answered with, “How dare you attack Mrs. Romney that way!”
Lurking Canadian
@a hip hop artist from Idaho (fka Bella Q): It’s $20000 in total?!?
Mr. Romney, it’s Mr. Marley of Scrooge and Marley on the phone. He and Mr. Scrooge both think you really ought to consider giving your staff a raise.
dan
Who you callin’ “you people”?
CaptServo
Hopefully someone can back me up here, 10% is the minimum required tithe for LDS folk? Why would you want to put that on your shield??
Steeplejack
@ABL:
Get a Bluetooth keyboard to go with it. My iPad friend said that makes all the difference for writing stuff (as opposed to browsing and reading).
Also, you’ve still got the first paragraph of your reply inside Ann’s quote.
gwangung
I don’t want to get into the phrasing, or even the tithing.
It’s just the sheer arrogance. No, Mrs. Romney, we need to know MORE THAN THAT. Your husband is running for the highest office of the land, and he should be up front with the American people about his finances, just like his opponent is, just like his father was.
Twit.
Rafer Janders
I suppose he could always have arranged for Bain to have paid him $100,000 plus if he ran out of money, though. They seemed willing to pay him even when he supposedly not doing any work at all there.
Hill Dweller
@danimal: Pierce is right to highlight the double standard Michelle Obama faces daily. If she says anything even approaching ‘you people’, the media would air wingnut attacks for weeks.
RossInDetroit, Rational Subjectivist
They’re just not going to let this go. Do they think they’re in the right to hide their taxes? Either that or they’re afraid of the torches and pitchforks if they release them. I’m betting on the latter.
dmsilev
@Violet:
By ‘their’, I trust you mean the Obama campaign?
Shinobi
@Mnemosyne: I agree, and I don’t think she should be exempt from criticism re tax returns.
But this is about the 5th post I’ve read today jumping on her use of the phrase “you people.” (A phrase which I’m not even totally sure she used, the you is barely audible.) And I think that is gotcha politics at its worst.
Shit like this is why I don’t watch TV news, and I’m annoyed to find it all over blogs today.
PeakVT
We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year.
I’d be more impressed if it wasn’t practically compulsory AND Mitt didn’t receive a high-status position in return. How much did they give to something they weren’t heavily pressured to give to?
japa21
I read her “He is so good about it” line as meaning he is so good about hiding things that you don’t think that he would be hiding things. I believe it would appropriate to say that she said: “That is the kind of person who is trying to hide things. He is so good about it.” All words she said, and all in order. So what if a couple explanatory words are missing?
jp7505a
@Rob in CT: LET’S give her the benefit of the doubt that she simply got her tongue wrapped around her eye teeth and couldn’t see what she was saying. We’ll extend her that benefit of the doubt the instant that the elephant echo chamber affords Michelle Obama the same benefit
NonyNony
@g:
That is a vile lie and a base calumny and you need to apologize to the woman.
If it were a country club application she would give them the information they wanted. And she would never risk her chances of admission by thinking she could tell the club that they had “all you people need to know”. It’s a country club application for Pete’s sake!
Violet
@gwangung: The condescension and arrogance is astounding. Even without the “you people” the “all you need to know” bit is ridiculous. Do they think that just Ann saying it, it will be true?
quannlace
And even if she did mean the reporters instead of us silly little voters; hey, great strategy to piss off the media, Ann.
Patricia Kayden
If she doesn’t like “us people”, she can convince her husband to drop out of the race. I guess she feels that if he wins, he’ll not have to tell “us people” much of anything.
SRW1
Any chance Ann is a close relative of Barbara “this is working very well for them” Bush? Cause she’s got that attitude down pat.
jwb
@<a h@Brachiator: Whenever spouses speak out on behalf of the campaign, that is, when they perform a role that is something more than that of a mere prop, I think they become fair game. We certainly heard a lot about Michelle Obama’s comments last election and generally, given her role in the campaign, I thought those comments were fair game even if they were generally ripped out of context. (It’s long been a favorite game of the GOP.)
Rob in CT
Btw, the substance is what matters. And the substance of what she’s saying is BS, regardless of whether or not she said “you people” and who exactly she meant by that.
Ignore the shiny (you people). Stick to the substance – the tax returns and what’s in them (including those 2010 returns which, for me, are enough to show our tax system is screwy).
schrodinger's cat
Why doesn’t anyone ask Romney about his role as bishop in his church? Is he still a Bishop?
Violet
@SRW1: To the manor born.
Roy G.
The begging follow up question: Why would Mitt refuse to follow the good example set by his father?
Jamey
@ABL: Please stop linking articles to ABL. I swear, I’ll visit you there when I’m ready to, but I really HATE when I’m shunted away from a site, just to drive impressions.
Thanks.
gwangung
@Rob in CT: Yup, yup and yup.
rlrr
@Violet:
He’s a very generous person. We give 10 percent of our income to our church every year
Isn’t tithing a requirement for Mormons to be in good standing?
Wapiti
I don’t know anything about tithing requirements, but if all Mormons give 10% of their income to the church, does that mean they are all pure and never hide things? I find that really hard to believe.
I wouldn’t believe that about Catholics, either, or anyone else; charitable contributions and morality/ethics can be mismatched.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@PeakVT: What I’d like to know is how much charity did they give to NON-Mormon charities? You know, the common ones “we people” give to.
Violet
@rlrr: I still wonder if they are actually tithing the full 10%. How would the Mormon church know? Do they show their tax returns to the church to prove they’re tithing 10%? What if they’re really only tithing 5% on actual income and nothing on investment income, or something. That will destroy their standing with the church, which is their last, best refuge.
My suspicion is that there’s some financial shenanigans regarding their tithing and they don’t want the church to find out about it. In addition to all the stuff about offshore, illegal Swiss accounts and paying no taxes in various years.
real_ting
Mitt is a very High ranking member of LDS.
Tithing benefits him personally.
To try to maintain that this is a “charitable donation” is absurd.
jl
@Rob in CT:
Agreed. It is the defense by self righteousness and special pleading.
They, and ‘their people’ have had special privileges and exemptions, and understandings, and allowed corner cutting, and they are trying to normalize that.
Like, oh, for example, being a major stockholder in a leverage buyout scam company gone bad, and profiting off that behavior, and then trying to disappear their responsibility retroactively and lying to the public about it. And then getting all huffy and self righteous about that sleazy behavior when some one calls them on it.
But, if fact, she did say ‘you people’. That is what I heard on the radio this morning, and I did not need any political gotcha artists to point that out for me, or rip it out of context, or put in some one else’s mouth.
I am not going to go out of my way avoid a plain fact like that.
SRW1
There has been a misunderstanding all along: Mitt is running for LDS President, not US President.
Midnight Marauder
@Shinobi:
FLASHBACK.
This woman has known exactly what she was doing all along. Explain again to me why we shouldn’t be just as ruthless in defining her as we are with her husband?
What’s that? We should be just as ruthless?
Carry on then…
KXB
Turns out what Romney has disclosed so far is incomplete:
Romney Has Disclosed Zero Complete Tax Returns
Nutella
@Roy G.:
Not just his father’s example but all the presidential candidates.
It annoys me that nobody asks the obvious question: Everyone else who runs for president, without exception, is required to provide all their recent tax returns. Why are you the one and only exception to a rule that applies to everyone?
It’s not like it’s some surprising new rule that they never knew about and couldn’t reasonably prepare for. We’ve been asking for this since George Romney’s day. So they know it’s required, they’ve always know it’s required, and they refuse to do what’s required because rules don’t apply to them.
Sawgrass Stan
No matter how much they may try to pretend they’re “jes’ folks,” the entitlement and privilege will always show through. Are you disturbed by The Romneys taking a $77,000. deduction for the care and feeding of Ann’s dancing horse?? Well, you’re just jealous because YOU don’t have a dancing horse! You People don’t DESERVE to have us in the White House!
jl
@Violet: I’ve thought about that angle too. Grifters gotta grift. I don’t see why their church would be exempt.
rlrr
@Violet:
Not Mormon, but an evangelical mega church near St. Louis asks its parishioners to sit down with a pastor and go over their recent tax returns to determine how much they should give to the church…
Kane
Cue the victimization the moment someone disagrees with her statement. They so want to make her the victim. And you know they can’t wait to unleash the attacks on Michelle Obama.
NonyNony
@rlrr:
Yes.
Saying “look at how generous Mitt is – he always makes sure we give the minimum allowable contribution to our church” sure says a lot about the man’s generosity, doesn’t it?
jl
@KXB: I saw that yesterday evening. And, appropriately enough, one of the missing documents is called FBAR, and contains important information about (what else would it be?) nature of offshore holdings and foreign bank accounts.
Mitt has an FBAR problem.
cat48
Uh, Sorry ANN, The Little People Want to See More ITR’s!!! Great that Independents are Very Curious, too. Sorry, Mittbot, givem up!
July 19, 2012
Majority Say Romney Should Release Tax Returns
A new USA Today/Gallup poll finds that Americans, by a 54% to 37% margin, say Mitt Romney should release his tax returns from additional years.
Those calling for more disclosure include 75% of Democrats, 53% of independents and 30% of Republicans.
Also interesting: “While 42% predict the release of additional returns would not reveal anything politically harmful, 44% believe it would include damaging information — including 15% who say they believe the revelations would be so serious that they would ‘show he is unfit to be president.'”
Brachiator
@Shinobi:
The “you” or “you people” or even just “people” is just extra delicious sauce.
Having his wife say anything about the tax return issue is just dumb.
And I don’t give a rat’s ass about how much or how little the Romney’s tithe. That his wife mentions this is odd, irrational, and (yes) out of touch with the political ramifications of Mitt’s stubbornness. The purpose of releasing the tax returns is about more than verifying whether they are fulfilling their church’s obligations.
@Violet:
Yeah, I was thinking skirt or apron strings or his wife’s Mormon underwear, but decided to leave it alone.
Mike in NC
Lady Macbeth had nothing compared to this entitled bitch.
Porco Rosso
Of the 10% donated to the LDS church, how much went to fight same sex marriage?
Cacti
Mitt practices the same level of financial disclosure and accountability as the Mormon church.
The Mormon church demands 10 percent of its adherents annual income, and gives ZERO accounting as to how it is spent.
Mitt’s secrecy over his finances is informed by his Mormonism.
Sawgrass Stan
Wait a minute…. He gives 10% to the church? It’s called ‘tithing’, you heathens, and it’s not just for Mormons. However, IS IT REALLY 10%? Da Bible doesn’t say whether it’s on gross or net, but I’m willing to bet that Mitt tried some fancy accounting tricks to stiff the Big Guy, just like Uncle Sam. May His Noodly Appendages take vengeance!
KXB
Mitt Romney has disclosed incomplete tax records for 2 years. He wants to be president.
The average American has to disclose more financial information when applying for a mortgage.
Discuss.
wrb
@Porco Rosso:
And how much to steal the souls of our ancestors?
ET
Didn’t robber barons of your like to spread the money around for less than altruistic reasons?
Also too, Ann should know that much of the hammering over tax returns is precisely to see “where he’s been financially” What’s that quote about being silent and though a fool than to open one’s mouth and remove all doubt.
Also too.0 – politicians (and their wives) should never ever, under any circumstance, use the phrase “you people”
Violet
@KXB: Mitt doesn’t need a mortgage. He just buys his houses with cash. Mortgages are for the lower orders.
scav
if anyone wants to play at the really and truly trivial end of the word-choice pool, I got a giggle out of his Mittliness referring to the suffering middle class campaign props who offered “Us” “Refreshments” as though it was out of the unprompted goodness in their little suffering but yearning hearts that motivated the offering up these tributes to their betters aka Gods.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
My good friend Ryan Cragun reported in the business week article about Mormon finances that only 0.7% of Mormon tithing is spent on charity.
However, mitt
jlow
Great. So he gives 10% of his income to hate on gays.
KXB
@Violet:
So are Vietnam-era military drafts, when Mitt felt France would be an ideal country to find converts for a religion that does not allow drinking or smoking.
Violet
@scav: I think that’s really telling because that’s probably how it works at his church gatherings. Underlings offer refreshments to the higher ups because it’s their duty and obligation to serve them and be obedient. So when Mitt sees people serving food he sees it as “offering” not “being paid a wage for work” and sees it as “refreshments” not “food and drink.” It’s an offering meant to soothe and comfort rather than food and drink served by workers.
jayjaybear
While I agree that (if she actually said “you people”) she meant the media, the delicious cherry on this optics sundae is that she said it to the African-American Robin Roberts. Echoes of Ross Perot’s “you people” in front of the NCAA in 1992!
Brachiator
@jwb:
Yeah, I hear what you are saying. I just don’t much give a damn about what a spouse says, any more than I would care about the general opinions of a presidential candidate’s cousin or next door neighbor.
And with Mrs Romney, it’s not a fair game issue. It is that she is unqualified to say anything remotely of value about the issue of the release of Romney’s tax returns. She loves Mitt and trusts Mitt and just knows that he wouldn’t do anything deceptive. And his mother loves him. Whoop Di goddam Doo.
I loves me some Michelle Obama, and I know that it is impossible, but had she continued doing her lawyer thing and just showed up and smiled at campaign events, I would be just as happy. That said, I cannot deny the degree to which Mrs Obama and other First Ladies (especially the ones I like) have inspired and helped people and causes.
Frankensteinbeck
I think what’s in the tax returns is a sideshow. Sure, if there’s absolutely nothing else Obama’s team can mine them for arguments about how the rich aren’t paying their fair share. None of that is the point. Romney himself has completely missed the point.
For the Obama team, the point is that Romney is stuck whining defensively about an issue Americans have absolutely no sympathy for. He looks weak and arrogant fighting this, and that’s defining his campaign at a time he cannot afford to waste. Right now, he needs to be presenting a good image to the American people in the hopes of holding onto whatever bump he gets from the convention. If the polls don’t change (and they’re not) he will lose in a landslide. He only looks competitive to anyone because deep red states hate Obama so much they make national polls look 50-50. Examine the numbers state by state, and Romney is screwed.
There is nothing more important to the Romney campaign than fixing this problem right now. Instead, they’re going ‘But I don’ wanna!’ on a national scale.
Older_Wiser
Well, Ann-toinette just proved herself to be Leona Helmsley 2.0.
“you people” indeed. No, you twit, it’s “We the People” and don’t you ever forget it, you rich, spoiled, privileged ratfucker.
And Helmsley went to prison for tax evasion. Want some of that, Annie? Just keep it up.
Lurking Canadian
@Violet:
Maybe they’re giving 10% of their taxable income. Which means some years, they give nothing at all, and some years they send the Church a bill for a refund, if they have some good capital losses to offset.
Agoraphobic Kleptomaniac
Grr, phone….
Mitt didn’t become a church leader through tithing though, he just couldn’t have been one if he didn’t pay. You also can’t go to temples or get into super heaven if you don’t pay. Also, the 10% thing gross vs net is open to interpretation from church leaders, they always said whichever you felt was more appropriate to give to god in return for his giving you life and a beautiful world to live on, which totally isn’t a guilt trip.
My dad does taxes for lots of mormons and they use fast offerings and tithing to get their rates down.
James K. Polk, Esq.
@Shinobi:
I just listened to the interview, you are off your rocker. It’s not what she would have WANTED to say, but it is most definitely what she DID say.
Linkzorz
Tonal Crow
@schrodinger’s cat:
Further, I understand that Mormon orthodoxy says that lying a a sure road to Hell. Some Mormon with integrity needs to ask the hierarchy for a formal investigation of Romney’s reprobate lying. Also too, I understand that gambling is verboten, yet Romney offered Rick Perry a $10,000 bet on national TV.
Cacti
Before Ann became the blessed matron of the 2012 election cycle, she was described as a “coddled, suburban Marie Antoinette” during Mitt’s 1994 senate run.
She’s just as nasty, and condescending as Willard, she’s just better at hiding it most of the time.
The mask slipped for a moment.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Shinobi:
Well replace the word “you people” with “the press”
or just drop the “you people”
Her intent is still arrogant as a hell in the context of her statement.
Linda Featheringill
I listened to the tape of the interview. I think that Ann MIGHT have said “all that people need to know.” This is insulting to the voters.
However, it sounded like “all you people need to know.” And this interpretation contains all kinds of bells and sirens and etc.
I don’t see any way to gracefully back away from that statement.
Cacti
@Tonal Crow:
Mormon hierarchy has a long history of “Lying for the Lord”.
A practice where lying is no sin, if it furthers the interests of the “one true Church”.
Lee
@KXB: Hooleeeeee Sheeeeeet.
That is incredible.
Hopefully a FP’er will report that.
trollhattan
@Linda Featheringill:
FWIW Arnie did while governating, and he’s worth considerably less than Willard, so it seems likely. Pocket change, for them (real $ for “you people”, meaning us).
wrb
@Frankensteinbeck:
Dunno.
Much fun as it is to mock his arrogance, I think he’s competent and rational enough to have released them by now if they didn’t contain something damaging.
The fact that he lied on public filings with the SEC and/or FEC suggests that he might think he could get away with creativity on a filing that was to be kept secret.
Nutella
The other thing that annoys me about the tax return issue is that we’ve heard that Romney provided 23 years of returns to the McCain campaign when he wanted to be VP.
McCain can have that and we can’t because ‘you people’ aren’t rich white men? Aren’t Republicans? Aren’t a prospective boss?
Jay in Oregon
To be fair, she’s right. With the disclosures they have already made, I am 100% sure that I don’t want that prissy, entitled bitch anywhere near the White House. Or his wife, for that matter.
NonyNony
@Frankensteinbeck:
If that were the case, Romney would have defused this whole situation by releasing them. And then saying “look there’s nothing in there”.
I actually know one thing that would be explosive to the Romney campaign that is in those tax returns. The amount of money he made over the last 12 years, the amount he paid taxes on, and the amount he’s been sending offshore.
It’s all perfectly legal – and that’s what would be so damn explosive about it.
scav
The Mittocracy at the TSA airport screening. “Please open your Bags, Maam.” Anne I: as she hands him her change purse “This is all you people need to see.”
The Mittocracy at border control. “Please present proof of citizenship, Maam.” Anne I: as she hands him a paid bill with a US address. “This is all you people need to see.”
The Mittocracy at the voting booth. See border control.
The Mittocracy at murder trail. “Where were you on the night in question, Maam.” Anne I: “Well, the next day I went shopping. This is all you people need to know.”
The requirements for transparency and the principle that only the guilty have anything to fear from being required to hand over all info at the drop of a hat apparently doesn’t trickle up.
Brachiator
@Nutella:
“Mr. Romney, you gave John McCain 23 years of tax returns because you wanted the job of Vice President. Shouldn’t you make 23 years of your tax return available to the American people if you want them to vote for you to become president?”
Linda Featheringill
@Jay in Oregon:
LOL! Very well said. :-)
Kane
How would a stay-at-home spouse know?
Noonan
What you mean, ‘you people’?
I think it’s time for a house meeting, y’all!
-Chapelle Show
Mad Real World episode
Jay in Oregon
@wrb:
And there are so many potential landmines to be found in there.
1) There’s likely to be ironclad proof that he was still in charge of things at Bain when he said he wasn’t.
2) He could have been a recipient of that IRS amnesty program in 2009, which could mean he was hiding even more money overseas than we realize.
3) I’m betting on one or more years when he paid zero taxes or, better yet, got money back from the IRS, possibly as a result of #2.
4) Then there will be all of the fun things to compare to the $77,000 writeoff he took for his wife’s horse dressage; things that portray him as an out-of-touch elitist who gains tax benefits that the rest of us don’t get (and ultimately pay for through our taxes).
Roger Moore
@jl:
Google is your friend.
LAC
@Shinobi: Oh, whaaa fucking boo. Romney is an unprincipled pussy sending his wife out there with another lame response to the tax return question so that he can run behind her skirt and then get into a faux outrage about her response being rebuffed. Asshole is running for the highest office in the land, not a church board position. Fuck the semantics and the “pause” shit – the asshole is expecting to run on his “job creating” position at Bain (because he is not running on his position as Governor) but any questions about Bain or how his vast wealth has translated to an economic vision that is supposed to help his country is verbotem? Screw them both and the overpriced horse they hired someone to ride them on.
gwangung
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Hell, yes.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
@Tonal Crow: That’s something else I am wondering about, sure Mormons have some wacky ideas but they do see themselves a honest people. Blessed by on high or not I can’t seem them embracing a lying sack of trash. Be real easy for them to start see Mittens as a kind of false prophet (or profit, yuck, yuck)
Maybe that’s the real source of the primal scream from the Romney camp?
Jilli
@Shinobi: Have you seen romenys “you didn’t build that” ad?
Raven
@wrb: What if it’s a trap? Nothing in them at all?
SRW1
@trollhattan:
Arnie worth considerably less than Willard
Not necessarily. There were lots of rumors last year Maria Shriver might get a $200 million divorce settlement. If Mitt really is a 250 pound gorilla, Arnie, prior to the divorce, might have been in almost double that weight class.
Felanius Kootea
Meanwhile, the crazy house of teaism votes to eliminate all funding for the Agency for Healthcare Research and Quality and to put a stop to any research funded by the US department of health that focuses on patient-centered outcomes research. This is because we don’t need any research to tell us that the US has the bestest healthcare in the world with no need for improvement. The fact that AHRQ focuses on research to address and reduce medical errors that kill 100,000 people every year is met by these brave congresspeople with the following response: “Lalalalala…I can’t hear you!” And of course the people who vote for them concur.
scav
@Raven: Then he looks like a managerial idiot for spining up and letting it blow up this big an issue and he looks like a spineless cretin for giving in. And, even if legal, they’re not going to look fair, and there’s still a difference. Only MC Escher could have drawn a cleft stick this perfectly cleft in n+1 dimension.
Kane
Stop with the “Chicago style” mantra! Everytime I hear it, I get a craving for deep dish pizza.
Commenting at Balloon Juice Since 1937
I bet you $10,000 that the dressage horse inherits everything.
Tonal Crow
@Brachiator: That’s the ticket. Since when do John McCain’s vetters deserve more information than the American people?
Jilli
@Jay in Oregon:
“3) I’m betting on one or more years when he paid zero taxes or, better yet, got money back from the IRS, possibly as a result of #2.”
This is the kicker Jay, simply because of the peripheral damage a 0% tax rate could do. It would blow giant holes in the cynicism of the decades old tax ruse the republican party has been propagating.
It demolishes the oft-repeated mantra of the “47% of people don’t pay taxes are leeches, losers, and welfare queens”. Yep, they’re leeches, but many of them are better coiffed, better dressed and have multimillion dollar net worths – but their still leeches.
It also has to throw the “taxed enough already” rubes for a loop – yeah, you may be taxed too much, but certainly willard and his kind aren’t. But yet they’re fighting to continue the subsidies in the form of double-dip tax cuts for the wealthiest – at their own expense. Their share of the deficit increases – willards doesn’t – he takes his tax cut and stashes it in the caymans. Even they have to be at least somewhat offended by this.
A 0% tax rate would also decimate the republican efforts for the continuation of the double-dip bush tax cuts for the wealthiest. Under Obama’s plan EVERYONE would get a tax cut on the first $250,000 of income, but the republicans are arguing that the wealthiest should get more. Really, the wealthiest like romney who are paying no taxes, should get even more cuts while the working class pays substantially higher rates Seriously?
Romney is the personification of the problems with our tax code. His tax returns have the potential to do damage to much more than just the romney campaign.
jl
@Felanius Kootea:
I like this one:
Daily Caller is starting a sleaze attack on nominee to head Bureau of Labor Statistics because she sent her kids to a summer camp that was investigated for comminess during the 1950s witch hunts.
Kewl!
COMMIES UNDER THE BED JULY 19, 2012
DAILY CALLER FINDS COMMUNIST UNDER BLS NOMINEE’S SUMMER CAMP BUNK
BY REBECCA SCHOENKOPF
http://wonkette.com/478735/daily-caller-finds-communist-under-bls-nominees-summer-camp-bunk
NonyNony
@Raven:
What kind of trap is digging in your heels to say that you’re not going to release them, only to release them to mounting pressure and have there be “nothing” there?
What do you do then? Giggle maniacally and yell “GOTCHA!” while the press flays you alive for being an asshole? Because if there’s one thing the press as a whole loves, it’s a politician who stonewalls over nothing.
Besides – there’s definitely something in there. The amount of money that Romney earned and the actual amount he paid in taxes on it. It isn’t common knowledge just how low the taxes in the US are for those at the very top – people actually believe that the very rich pay HUGE AMOUNTS in taxes. If he ever does release them and the numbers get reported, the amount he earned and the amount he paid in taxes is not only going to make him look like a rich elitist, it’s also going to put more emphasis on that argument that the rich aren’t contributing their fair share.
He can’t have that – the centerpiece of his campaign (as with all Republicans since Reagan) is that we need to cut taxes on the rich so they can trickle down on the rest of us. Romney is already solid evidence that that kind of economics just doesn’t work for anyone EXCEPT the rich guys (that’s what his job destroyer record at Bain is evidence of), and his tax forms would be more data and more reason to talk about how it isn’t working.
And that’s just if he’s done everything perfectly legal and by the book in them. Just the legal stuff will look really, really bad and start conversations he and his backers don’t want people to have.
smedley
@phoebes in santa fe:
The return shows that the Romneys gave $2,600,000 to the Mormon Church, $500,000 to the Tyler Foundation, and $920,572 non-cash shares of stock, mostly to the Tyler Foundation.
Rafer Janders
@Nutella:
To be clear, presidential candidates are not legally required to provide tax returns. However, virtually all of them do, and it’s become so routine that it’s expected. So it’s “required” by norm, but not by law.
wrb
@Raven:
Maybe, but seems like a dumb trap to set.
They are bound to reveal legal activities that are unappealing–
offshore accounts, less tax paid than by wage-earners, etc.
Why build attention before releasing such information?
Cacti
@Enhanced Voting Techniques:
Salt of the earth Mormons see themselves as an honest people.
Mormon royalty sees honesty as something for the little people.
“Some things that are true are not very useful”
Boyd K. Packer
Mormon Apostle
Felanius Kootea
@jl: Between that and Michele Bachmann’s ravings, I think there’s a need to medicate the water these Republicans are drinking. I mean this is bordering on paranoid schizophrenia.
Martin
@Raven: Like the Romney’s only earned $20K-$75K per year like the rest of us? There’s no way that Romney’s returns can’t be used against him. Look at how much is already in the 2010 return?
Martin
@Cacti: I don’t see the yearlong “Prop 8 will force teachers to preach the benefits of gay marriage to your kids” campaign as having been terribly honest. And that was funded almost entirely by the LDS and Catholic churches.
Brachiator
@wrb:
The funny thing is, it is entirely possible that his tax returns don’t contain anything of interest. His 2010 return (issue of the offshore accounts aside) is fairly boring.
For now, though, the Democrats really should mock and play up the arrogance angle.
And let’s face it, with this “I reveal only what I want to reveal” stance, Mittens is already the showing dangerous signs that he would be a president who would invoke executive privilege at the earliest opportunity.
Soonergrunt
Awesome. Talk about rapid response:
http://www.youtube.com/watch?feature=player_embedded&v=z-z-U57BaSc
“Mitt Romney: Saying Anything to Get Elected”
Raven
@NonyNony: I dunno, I’m jet lagged and too tired to think so I thought I’d let ya’ll chew it over for me!
Nutella
@Rafer Janders:
I know. That’s why I said ‘rule’.
So nobody’s going to arrest Romney for not doing it, but us demanding to know why he’s not following the rule that everyone else has been required to follow is perfectly reasonable.
And I haven’t heard an answer to that question.
SBJules
@henrythefifth: I wondered if he may fudged the tithing too.
chuck butcher
I’d say that given the amount of money Mittens can afford to pay for tax preparation that every little detail is legal. What is in there is a discussion that Mittens doesn’t want to have in regard to the taxation of the rich. He and the GOP don’t want to ram into everyone’s face just how skewed the system is, as someone noted – the Teabaggers might not like it as fact regarding the “job creators.”
Comrade Dread
Of course it’s “you people.”
In Mitt’s world we’re all just The Help.
She might as well have told us to learn our place and not question our social betters.
Rekster
@schrodinger’s cat: That’s what happens when you have to put on the “magic underwear”!
Tonal Crow
@Soonergrunt: Well done, Team Obama.
shortstop
@Rafer Janders: @Nutella: Right now Romney is collecting detailed tax returns from the people being vetted for the VP spot on the ticket. If we had a working media, a number of people in it would ask Romney why he thinks he must know his running mate’s finances in that level of detail, while the American people have no right to look at the same info from someone who wants to hold our highest office.
jl
@Soonergrunt:
Good response.
Confronts Romney’s dishonesty as directly as possible.
Makes the multiple dishonesties of Romney’s smear very obvious, with pics and sound.
Not only a response for public, but a direct promise to Romney camp: we are coming straight for you next time you try this garbage, with sound and pics of you, in context, lying your ass off.
Greed Is God
Romney is just invoking Chief Executive Officer privilege.
Erik Vanderhoff
Isn’t Romney required to tithe 10% of his income? That isn’t charity!
Gin & Tonic
@Raven: I asked that the other day and was laughed out of the joint.
Raven
@Nutella: Rules, in a knife fight?
smedley
The Tyler Foundation, to which the Romneys donated, was named for a kid named Tyler. It does good work. Tyler was diagnosed with epilepsy at three weeks old. He has a pre-existing condition…………..
Greed Is God
You people are just nattering nabobs of negativism.
NCSteve
So let me get this straight, We People are supposed to be impressed that he considered running a state to be a hobby?
Tonal Crow
@Greed Is God:
But he says he wasn’t Chief Executive Officer! He says he had nothing whatever to do with Bain after 2/1999!
Judas Escargot, Acerbic Prophet of the Mighty Potato God
I’m in Bill Maher’s camp: Giving 10% of your income to your church isn’t “charity”.
For the Romneys, it’s just another expensive Club membership.
jwb
@Soonergrunt: SInce you have the keys to the place, how about front paging it and giving us a new thread.
NonyNony
@jl: I like how they juxtapose Mitt Romney’s words with Obama’s words to show that Romney actually agrees with Obama and can only pretend to disagree by lying about what Obama was saying.
I was a little concerned with the initial part of the ad, because repeating your opponent’s attack is usually a bad move. But this may be the exception to that rule.
fraught
Oh, good. The return of Mrs. Poppy Bush. Exactly what this election season needed. The indignant loghorrhia of the minor characters always makes for effective comedy. It would have been even better if she’d been just the slightest bit drunky. But since she’s a Morman its probably the slurring of a quarter tab of Ambien.
Rich women telling poor people not to be nosy are always funny.
Raven
@Gin & Tonic: Fuck em if they can’t take a joke. They mess with me I’ll post more pictures of my fish!
The Other Chuck
She may have said “people” and not “you people” but she went for the second-person pronoun in the very next clause of the same sentence. The sentiment comes across precisely the same to me.
Martin
@chuck butcher: Agreed. Plus, in 2008, it’s very likely the Romney’s paid $0 in taxes due to investment losses. That too is legal, but it sure as fuck doesn’t look fair, particularly with millions of homeowners taking losses on their housing values and getting no similar deduction.
Roger Moore
@Felanius Kootea:
Nooooo! You’re trying to sap and impurify our precious bodily fluids!
BC
He gives only 10% to Church of LDS? My friend’s son was E-1 in Navy and LDS church asked for 25% so he could be “temple worthy” and get married with the full LDS rites. Every Mormon I know considers 10% to be for the less committed church members.
yuninv
I’d like my slice of welfare cake, please, Mrs. Ann-toinette.
flukebucket
@BC: Temple worthy? Ha! Is that the same thing as sponge worthy?
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
Which is exactly why he was willing to release it. If the 2009 return were equally harmless, don’t you think he would have released it, too, just to avoid this kind of drawn out nonsense?
fraught
“Rich women telling poor people to stop being so nosy are always funny.”
-Barbara Bush
WaterGirl
@schrodinger’s cat: I’m pretty sure Mitt’s still trying to figure out if is / has /will be resigning the bishop-hood retroactively.
Edit: In other words, your schrrodinger’s cat is still in the box.
Jay in Oregon
@Raven:
If you mean that his tax returns are blank, maybe.
But someone in his campaign must have pointed out to him how his responses and evasions so far make him look guilty of something. Really, “I’ve done everything the law requires” as a defense? That’s lawyerly weasel wording, the kind that people are used to hearing when a company makes excuses for dumping toxic waste or knowingly selling a cellphone that electrocutes people.
If there’s nothing there, then he could have defused all of this a week ago by releasing the damn files.
Jay in Oregon
@Comrade Dread:
Most historically apt, I think.
schrodinger's cat
@Raven: I doubt it, his IRA had a rate of return of about 27% which is well above the rate Madoff promised. There is something fishy about that, no way can you get that kind of rate of return year after year. I am sure the tax returns are full of such nuggets of information.
Raven
@schrodinger’s cat: k
Jay in Oregon
@BC:
Holy shit. 25 percent? That’s bordering on Church of Scientology/whacko fringe cult (but I repeat myself) financial exploitation.
Brachiator
@Roger Moore:
Don’t know. It’s hard to discern the degree to which Romney is being an imperious prick from the degree to which he is supposedly hiding something.
And again, I don’t get the sense that he is hiding anything illegal.
Someone suggested that one of his earlier returns might show a donation to an organization such as Planned Parenthood. Something like this would be innocuous to a sane person, but would drive fundamentalist wingnuts wild.
But where Romney’s arrogance is meeting the sweetspot of political stupidity is that people can easily imagine all manner of bad dealings hiding in his tax returns. He could deal with this easily if he released them. He could even deal with damaging information. But if some nebulous “what’s he hiding” takes hold in the imaginations of significant numbers of voters, nothing that Mittens, or his wife, or his handlers, will be able to counter his claims that he has shown all he needs, or is willing, to show.
Raven
@Jay in Oregon: It was $20 when I was an E-1. The first time anyway!
The Other Chuck
@Soonergrunt: Is it just me or have YouTube videos become completely unwatchable on Firefox lately? I’m constantly getting script timeouts.
scav
@Jay in Oregon: At least under Marie Antoinette we (theoretically) got cake.
Enhanced Voting Techniques
How soon we forget about the Arthur Andersen scandal
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Arthur_Andersen
The Other Chuck
@Soonergrunt: Is it just me or have YouTube videos become completely unwatchable on Firefox lately? I’m constantly getting script timeouts.
schrodinger's cat
Does Queen Ann have any sister wives? It would be irresponsible not to speculate.
The Other Chuck
@Soonergrunt: Is it just me or have YouTube videos become completely unwatchable on Firefox lately? I’m constantly getting script timeouts.
danielx
@Jay in Oregon:
Two thumbs WAY up!
danielx
@Jay in Oregon:
Two thumbs WAY up!
shortstop
@Brachiator:
I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that he’s hiding illegal activities; though it’s possible, it’s not the main concern. The reason his tail’s in a crack is that he’s doing totally legal, or at least arguably legal, things that highlight how much our tax code benefits the superwealthy at the expense of the rest of us, and how easy it is for the ultra HNW crowd to go outside the system to shelter income overseas. A system that is almost universally perceived to be unfair is something Romney and his backers decidedly do not want to shine a light on right now.
shortstop
@Brachiator:
I don’t think anyone’s suggesting that he’s hiding illegal activities; though it’s possible, it’s not the main concern. The reason his tail’s in a crack is that he’s doing totally legal, or at least arguably legal, things that highlight how much our tax code benefits the superwealthy at the expense of the rest of us, and how easy it is for the ultra HNW crowd to go outside the system to shelter income overseas. A system that is almost universally perceived to be unfair is something Romney and his backers decidedly do not want to shine a light on right now.
danielx
@Jay in Oregon:
I am truly awed. Too perfect for words. But…two thumbs way up!
Lurking Canadian
@NCSteve: I’m sure I remember something from the primary in which he said, in effect, that the only people who hold public office should be people rich enough not to need the salary.
That, combined with, “We really shouldn’t discuss tax policy in public” should be enough to disqualify him for public office in any democracy, anywhere. What he wants is to be the Honorable Member from the rotten borough of Snobshire in about 1827.
The Other Chuck
@The Other Chuck: … he says while wordpress times out and eats his posts. Someone hang the Out Of Order sign on the Internet please?
wrb
@shortstop:
Of course we are!
As often as possible.
If he won’t release them…
It would be irresponsible not to…
danielx
I’m getting this truly delicious image of Romney’s campaign manager holding his head in his hands moaning out loud…”They’ve been at this since 2006 and they still don’t know how to play this game!”.
shortstop
@wrb: Well, have at it, then. If he wants to disprove that, he knows how to do it. ;)
shortstop
@scav: Hmmm, I don’t remember her getting into that level of detail. I think it was more about not stopping people from providing their own cake if they wanted it.
Roger Moore
@Brachiator:
The bigger issue is that the longer he stalls, the less likely an eventual release is to help him even if there’s nothing there. Right now, he could probably release his taxes and, assuming there’s no big scandal in them, the whole thing would blow over the next time a shiny object appeared in front of the press. If he delays and people keep speculating, they’ll start conflating the speculation with the truth. If he delays much longer, people will remember the speculation and wild theories as much as they remember the truth. The only way endless stonewalling helps is if the returns are at least as toxic as everyone is speculating.
Sister Rail Gun of Warm Humanitarianism
@The Other Chuck:
It’s not just you. At least they do play, eventually; I had a stretch there where they wouldn’t play at all.
You can lengthen the timeout in about:config.
Mike G
Willard doesn’t want to be President.
He wants to be crowned King.
shortstop
@Roger Moore:
And that seems increasingly likely, although it’s hard to know how much of this is C. Montgomery Burnsian “How dare they question me!” stuff. Mrs. Romney certainly cranked that up today.
Again, I doubt there’s anything blatantly illegal in there. But the optics have got to be horrifying if not releasing them looks less damaging to Romney than putting it out there.
jenn
@smedley: Actually, my understanding is that the Tyler Foundation he gives to is not the epilepsy one, but a Romney-run foundation that doles out smaller amounts to other charities.
Terry
@jayjaybear: Agreed. When she had finished uttering it, she meant it to mean the press. But, here’s my theory as to why that word was uttered softly:
Ms. Romney started to say “the people” and then realized that would sound to voters like she meant everyone, including them. Which is what she did mean. But she’s quick in the saddle.
She switched to “you people” in mid-pre-utterance, hoping at that point it would be taken as meaning the press.
All that mental confusion while speaking caused the lowered voice volume.
wrb
@shortstop:
Take, for example, the amnesty on unreported off-shore accounts. Taking advantage of it is not illegal in itself, and might have seemed prudent at the time, but but doing so does, incidentally, constitutes admission of past crime.
That could easily snare someone like Romney.
Of course it might all just be about the perfectly legal profits made off those aborted Christian babies.
Steeplejack
@schrodinger’s cat:
Ran the numbers the other night. Romney’s IRA is closer to a 43% compound annual growth rate (based on the sketchy details released).
Cassidy
I don’t give a shit what she meant or who she meant it too. She said it and it sounds entitled and out of touch and awful. So now, you take it and you skewer their fucking asses with it and make them squeal all the way to the Cayman Islands. When you’re in a fight you go for the eyes, the nostrils, the ears, the nuts, whatever you get your hands on and you dig in and make it hurt until the other person gives up. That’s how you win.
PurpleGirl
How much NON-church “charity” do they give? For example, do they contribute to the National Multiple Sclerosis Society, to any local branches? Do they give to breast cancer research? Do any other non-profit organizations get donations from them?
I do not consider money given to your own church body to be charity — it’s upkeep and maintenance of the church building, the salary of the pastor, the organist or other musician(s), the salary of the janitor and church secretary. Charity should be something like a soup kitchen or food pantry, giving out clothes, stuff like that.
NancyDarling
@Cassidy: Well said!
SFAW
@Gin & Tonic:
Me too. Maybe we can form a club? Just as long as Raven doesn’t post that damn fish picture again.
ETA: Damn! Looks like Raven beat me to the punch on that one. Looks like I’m a day late and a tithe short, as usual.
SFAW
@Steeplejack:
So? Aren’t you getting 43%? I thought everyone did.
Why, just yesterday, I found a quarter, a dime, and a nickel, and my net worth increased by 20%! And that’s just in one day! If you extrapolate that to a full year, well ….
Brachiator
@shortstop:
RE: And again, I don’t get the sense that he is hiding anything illegal.
I will just let this sit there a second, because it supports my point.
We don’t know what’s in the other returns, so it is easy to imagine possible illegality, without facts, evidence or even hints of impropriety.
There is some of this, but I think that, for now, it is a major issue only for political junkies. The average voter or citizen doesn’t understand how his own taxe work, and a lot of people I talk to think that what the breaks available to Romney can be used by anybody.
But you don’t have to understand anything about the tax code or possible inequities in the system to understand stubborness, intransigence and arrogance, and the stench of an aristocrat who thinks that he can re-write rules and traditions to suit his preferences.
VividBlueDotty
I heard “you people.” But what I also heard was this…
Like drugging a lame horse to get a higher price from the sale of it?
Why, yes, I do.
Brutusettu
Wouldn’t Mitt loose his good standing in LDS if he didn’t tithe?
Do they donate more than what’s required?
ericblair
@Cassidy:
That’sh the Hawaiian Way!
phoebes-in-santa fe
@smedley: Okay, here’s the Christian Science Monitor’s piece about the Tyler Organisation:
“But Romney and his wife also gave a considerable amount of money – some $1.5 million in 2010 and $500,000 in 2011 – to other charities, mainly through the Tyler Charitable Foundation, apparently named for a street Romney and his wife lived on in Belmont, Mass. In 2010, the foundation had more than $10 million in assets.
In 2010, the largest beneficiaries of the Tyler Charitable Foundation included the Mormon Church ($145,000), the Friends of George W. Bush Library ($100,000), and the Center for Treatment of Pediatric MS ($75,000). However, the foundation also made contributions to organizations including the US Equestrian Team Foundation ($10,000), Harvard Business School ($10,000), and Homes for Our Troops ($20,000).
In past years, some of Romney’s contributions have gone to conservative groups such as the Heritage Foundation, the Becket Fund (for religious rights legal aid), and the Federalist Society, which seeks reform of the current legal system. In 2007, he wrote a check to Citizens for Limited Taxation, a Marblehead, Mass., organization that strives to limit taxes and the size of government.
phoebes-in-santa fe
@smedley: I don’t think the “Tyler Foundation” and the “Tyler Charitable Foundation” are the same organisation, though both are based in Boston.
shortstop
@Brachiator: Hmmmm, I think you underestimate how many people are aware of tax loopholes and shelters that are available or practically useful only to the very wealthy–aware of the existence of these options, that is, not necessarily the details. The public perception of arrogance and entitlement goes well beyond Romney’s huffy refusal to follow candidate precedent to include suspicions that he’s (perfectly legally) gaming the system to his advantage.
Of course, this is all anecdotal on both sides, but my conversational experience with non-political junkies has been quite different than yours. The point is that no illegality may be present and it doesn’t even need to be suspected for people to believe that the returns contain highly campaign-damaging information. That he is refusing to play ball while he and his wife take an injured “How dare you cast aspersions on our secretiveness” attitude only heightens the disgust; it isn’t the only reason for it.
JR in WV
I don’t know a lot about the LDS Mormonism.
I know that the more you tithe, the better class of afterlife you get. If you tithe a whole lot (like 50%) you get to be god, forever, in paradise.
If you tithe the minimum, like 10%, you get to wipe up the mess God made on the ruby/emerald tile.
So Rmoney has some other tool in the fire than just tithing 10%, because he surely intends to be god [as he is practising already], maybe like enabling the high elders to earn 43% on their IRA?
I’m sure that if he’s filed public documents that are mutually exclusive such that one of the other is a felony, the private documents are at least as bad.
AxelFoley
@LAC:
This. All this.
shano
I have to say in the world of horse sports, the dressage queens are the absolute snottiest, and that is saying something. Yea, she is a typical dressage diva.
What would one expect from a cow but a kick?
TheTruthSquad
Wow, Mitt is hiding behind his wifes skirt. The Mormon church is known as being one of the stingiest churches when it comes to actual charity. They give between 0.7% and 2.6% to actual charity work. The bulk of what they spend their money on is building resorts and shopping malls, and bigger temples. Mitt has given to other charities such as the George W. Bush library and Citizens for Limited Taxation, a charity that fights to lower taxes by eliminating services. I guess the Mormon church doesn’t care about the poor either.