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While the vast majority of Americans claim they already know enough about Mitt Romney and President Obama, the country is interested in learning more about Romney’s tax returns. According to a new Pew Research survey, next to his tenure as governor of Massachusetts, voters are most curious about Romney’s tax returns. From Pew:
With more than
three months to go before Election Day, most voters already feel that there’s little left to learn about the presidential candidates. When it comes to Barack Obama, 90% say they already pretty much know what they need to know about him; just 8% say they need to learn more. A substantial majority (69%) also says they already mostly know what they need to know about Mitt Romney. Only about a quarter (28%) say they need to learn more to get a clear impression of Romney. Combining these two questions, fully two-thirds of voters say they already know as much as they need to about both presidential candidates.
When it comes to specific details of Romney’s background and experience, 41% of voters say they would like to learn more about Romney’s record as governor, 36% would like to learn more about his tax returns, while 35% want to know more about his record as chief executive of Bain Capital. Far fewer want to hear more about Romney’s wealth (21%), his family and upbringing (19%) or his religious beliefs (16%).
This shows the issue of Romney refusing to release more than one year of tax returns has managed to penetrate beyond the beltway conversation. It appears the narrative that Romney is actually hiding something has managed to get sufficient traction and made people curious.
It’s rather remarkable how many people claim to care about the returns. Tax returns are after all inherently rather boring, and I doubt if Romney had initially released several years if almost anyone would have bothered to find out what was in them. By not releasing them, Romney has effectively allowed a story to be created.
Romney’s plan of ignoring the issue in the hope that it would go away has failed. Going forward, it will be interesting to see if Romney submits to pressure to release more returns or if he simply lets the impression he is hiding something continue, which would reinforce the suspicion that he actually is hiding something.
15 Comments
Interesting usage by Pew of the word “few” on that graphic. Even if you can somehow meaningfully separate interest in his tax returns with interest in his wealth (WTF?), more than 1 in 5 respondents were interested his wealth. That’s “few”?
Also, here’s a cogent summary of Romney’s history as our governor: he has disavowed the few things that prevented his performance from being a total friggin’ disaster.
With the Romney campaign’s inability to resolve this non-issue and its lack of an effective response to the legal outsourcing of jobs that was made possible by NAFTA and similar FTAs, which originated with the Clinton administration and are being promoted by O (TPP), it’s beginning to appear as if the PTB have decided to support a 2nd term for O. He can more effectively deliver their desired policies without opposition than can Romney.
Does Willard have any other tax returns beyond the one year he released?
No income as Mass gov, no income for Olympics, non-US interest accounts..
One can’t release what one doesn’t have.
Willard is really not as benevolent as he calims to be.
richard….do you think maybe he lost his shirt in the housing bubble? Maybe he invested in Solyndra, Enron, Stanford Financial, Tyco and bought greek bonds. Maybe he bet big on the Pats and BoSox. Maybe he is NOT worth $285 million. Maybe the elevastor is NOT for his cars, but he and Ann are living in the garage?????
I can see how h e wouldn’t THAT to get out.
Jon….could be like my new grandaughter. When she’s full, she stops eating and turns her head away.
OTOH, here in Texas, we got a saying, “We don’t eat ’til we’re full. We eat ’til we’re tired.”
I think that ship has already sailed. Any doubt in anybody’s mid was erased by his lovely wife.
I dont believe there can be any period when Romney had “no income”. He carefully mangaged severences and re-employment guarantees so he was always protected and earning something. (Such post-employment guarantees are something that ordinary people do not get. And something that Romney can never appreciate about regular Americans.)
The problem that Romney has is balancing the benefit from no release with the costs related to the release. If it is, as he states, that his returns are several hundred pages long, there is bound to be something that the Obama campaign can seize on, whether completely legal or not. Imagine if he has taken advantage of all the law allows and he pays 10% or even nothing. The brouhaha that would result from a completely legal tax return would absorb weeks of back and forth. It is my guess that it is easier for him to stonewall than to put up with the predictable furor that would result from his release of the documents. And that means no release. It may even be to his advantage to keep the conversation there rather than the more substantive arguments raised by the Obama campaign team.
While Willard was chairman of Mariott’s audit committee, he dreamed up questionable tax shelters. Just think what shelters he has come up with for his own non-income.
Think of it this way, Willard did not accept any salary as Mass gov or as Olympic big cheese. He also now lives in New Hampshire w/ no income tax.
No income, no state return needs to be filed. No state returns, no federal returns.
Further, if all his investments are offshore, he’s not reporting any income from that. Why file any tax returns?
A simple question to put to Willard.
“Have you filed a tax return in all of the last xx years?”
“now lives in New Hampshire w/ no income tax”
Just to be clear, we have an Interest and Dividends tax, flat 5% on interest and dividends, but not capital gains. Chances are excellent he would have had to file that.
But Willard has both a Harvard MBA and JD.
Creative minds/vehicles available to shelter both interest and dividends to avoid filing.
Its why Willard gave McCain 23 years of records, there was nothing in them.
Well, maybe. I file I&D and I am not aware of any way to shelter Federally reportable income if you claim residency. The other interesting angle about the unreleased state taxes is that if he were to have filed I&D as a resident, and have simultaneously claimed Massachusetts residency since he voted in the Brown/Coakley special, it would be voter fraud.
Yeah, like Romney is the first politician to run for president who’s rich.
Big deal; who cares!? I know I don’t. This is nothing more than a distraction from a record that the president CAN’T run on.
Bingo!