I don't think it will hurt him, honestly. If people didn't already care about his being fabulously wealthy as a result of gutting businesses and firing people, they're not going to give a crap about him having an obscene amount of money in tax sheltered funds.
Besides, didn't you know that he worked HARD for that tax-sheltered $100 million?? He was basically pulling 14 hour shifts in the mines to earn that, so lay off!
I don't think it will hurt him, honestly. If people didn't already care about his being fabulously wealthy as a result of gutting businesses and firing people, they're not going to give a crap about him having an obscene amount of money in tax sheltered funds.
Besides, didn't you know that he worked HARD for that tax-sheltered $100 million?? He was basically pulling 14 hour shifts in the mines to earn that, so lay off!
I disagree, and I think the Romney camp does as well. Even Rs are calling for him to release the returns, and still he refuses. The longer this drags on, the worse it looks. If there's nothing sketchy in there, why not release them and move on?
Besides, didn't you know that he worked HARD for that tax-sheltered $100 million?? He was basically pulling 14 hour shifts in the mines to earn that, so lay off!
Working hard is definitely subjective and not solely owned by those doing physical jobs.
Anyway, if nothing else, all these loopholes just show how f-ed up our tax system is and he should totally capitalize on this aspect. Most sane people know this, even the dumb parrots.
I have heard speculation that the reason he hasn't released more records is that his records may show that he took advantage of amnesty that was offered in recent years for taxpayers who had illegally stashed money in offshore accounts.
Either that, or he has significantly more money than he's told the Mormon church. They require a 10% tithe to be a member in good standing, and if he's been squirreling away money the church doesn't know about, that could cost him in the long-term with them.
Whatever it is about his returns that he doesn't want to share, his advisers have apparently looked at the situation and decided that the hit he takes by NOT releasing them is better than the hit he'll take if he does release them.
Post by cookiemdough on Aug 6, 2012 14:16:26 GMT -5
He can only capitalize on it if it is the same types of things he benefits from. If he leaves his loopholes in tact and tries to change the code by impacting items taken advantage of by the middle class it won't look good.
All I care about is if it's legal, and I'm assuming it is. Past that, we all know that he's Richie Rich, so I don't think this is a big game changer. Guess we'll see.
See, I want a president who doesn't just abide by the letter of the law.
Maybe it's not illegal, but if it's morally off, sketchy, etc... I guess that doesn't matter to you, but it does to me.
I don't think it will hurt him, honestly. If people didn't already care about his being fabulously wealthy as a result of gutting businesses and firing people, they're not going to give a crap about him having an obscene amount of money in tax sheltered funds.
Besides, didn't you know that he worked HARD for that tax-sheltered $100 million?? He was basically pulling 14 hour shifts in the mines to earn that, so lay off!
I disagree, and I think the Romney camp does as well. Even Rs are calling for him to release the returns, and still he refuses. The longer this drags on, the worse it looks. If there's nothing sketchy in there, why not release them and move on?
I'm with Mrs.A. If they didn't think the truth about the IRA or the tax returns would hurt them in terms of votes, they'd have offered an explanation on the IRA value and they'd have offered up the tax returns by now. I don't think that the "I don't care how rich he is or how he got there" camp is as locked up for him as you say, TTT.
We are in big trouble if our leaders are our moral compass.
I don't think our president should be our moral compass but I do think he should *have* one.
I think we have different definitions of morality, then. To me, business owners are not souless and the speculation on his money is just that, speculation. ::shrugs::
I don't think our president should be our moral compass but I do think he should *have* one.
I think we have different definitions of morality, then. To me, business owners are not souless and the speculation on his money is just that, speculation. ::shrugs::
And everyone will continue to speculate on bad and worse scenarios until he finally releases his returns.
I think we have different definitions of morality, then. To me, business owners are not souless and the speculation on his money is just that, speculation. ::shrugs::
Okay, but the reason it's just speculation is because he won't be forthright about it, so naturally the assumption is that there is something in it that would reflect negatively on him. SO all these hypotheses about what that "negative" thing might be, seem pretty well placed. It's not like he provided 10 years or IRS returns and we're all speculating that there is some secret stash of "amended" returns and these aren't the "real" returns and where are your "real returns." It's like, "Dude, if you want people to stop thinking you were doing something possibly illegal and probably immoral with your money, you're free to set the record straight at any time."
This is how I feel about it. And for the record, I am firmly in the "I don't care that he is Richie McRich" camp. I would just like to see an honest answer from him. Even if the honest answer is that he was a little shady and took advantage of many tax loopholes and took amnesty and paid a lower percentage tax than I do.
Legal doesn't always equal ethical. As a parent, you have the responsibility of feeding, sheltering, clothing, and educating your child. You could feed him/her the minimum amount of cheap food, but two changes of clothes, and make him/her sleep on the floor while you had money to do more and were eating well with nice clothes and a nice bed. You would be doing the minimum responsibility, but it wouldn't show that you had the child's best interests at heart. (Of course some parents can't afford much, but that isn't applicable to MR)
While I don't think he should fork over 50% or more of his income in taxes voluntarily, the fact that he goes to such lengths to escape taxes when the economy is struggling and police and fire fighters are being laid off due to lack of funding--looks like he wouldn't be interested in changing or eliminating those loopholes. He even asked that his property taxes be lowered on his $12 million house. Did he really need for that to happen? It is legal to ask, but isn't sympathetic looking when taxes pay for jobs and jobs are lost when revenue goes down.
I think there are people who will defend every tax evasion and others who look at it through different eyes. There was a guest on Morning Joe this morning who said that the Romneys were at the top of the aggressive tax cutting citizens. www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-romney-property-tax-20120806,0,4926772.story
The problem with him getting a 1000% match from Bain (no wonder he was only pulling a 100k salary for a few years) is that there are rules about how executives can be compensated, right? Like, the pool of average employees have to contribute x amount/percentage in order for "high earners" to qualify for some 401k matching. I think. I might be thinking about something related to health care benefits, but I could have sworn it was for 401ks - to discourage companies from only offering them to people making high incomes, I guess, and to encourage us little people to use them.
I understand why there is speculation. I don't understand why TTT thinks he has no morals. THAT was my point.
I think it is immoral to say the lower and middle class need to be paying more in taxes because w have a serious budget crisis that will ruin this country if they don't pay more while simultaneously avoiding paying your own taxes though maneuvers that only an extremely expensive accountant could set up for you.
You want to say that the budget is fine, the deficit and debt aren't going to destroy the country and nobody needs to be paying more tax? Okay. But "poor people and middle class people should pay more and should be responsible to fixing the budget crisis while rich people get more cuts" is bullshit, sorry.
Anyone know how Harry Ried managed to have 10+million on his 190K salary?
Lol 10+ million what? Socks? Kittens? Dollars in an offshore account? And what the hell does this have to do with Romney? Last I checked, Reid wasn't running for president nor is his name in the title of this thread.
I think it is immoral to say the lower and middle class need to be paying more in taxes because w have a serious budget crisis that will ruin this country if they don't pay more while simultaneously avoiding paying your own taxes though maneuvers that only an extremely expensive accountant could set up for you.
Except he paid taxes, but gets lots of deductions (13.9%, if memory serves)...abcnews.go.com
I think it is immoral to say the lower and middle class need to be paying more in taxes because w have a serious budget crisis that will ruin this country if they don't pay more while simultaneously avoiding paying your own taxes though maneuvers that only an extremely expensive accountant could set up for you.
Except he paid taxes, but gets lots of deductions (13.9%, if memory serves)...abcnews.go.com
Right, but it is frustrating to watch him campaign on the notion of lessening the budget gap by closing the tax loopholes so that the poor and lower middle class pay more, while he is overtly utilizing more loopholes in the code than anyone and arguing for them to remain. The disconnect there is a huge point of contention.
Except he paid taxes, but gets lots of deductions (13.9%, if memory serves)...abcnews.go.com
Right, but it is frustrating to watch him campaign on the notion of lessening the budget gap by closing the tax loopholes so that the poor and lower middle class pay more, while he is overtly utilizing more loopholes in the code than anyone and arguing for them to remain. The disconnect there is a huge point of contention.
No, he is saying taxes should remain low on high income earners (less deductions). So, he would also be affected.
Right, but it is frustrating to watch him campaign on the notion of lessening the budget gap by closing the tax loopholes so that the poor and lower middle class pay more, while he is overtly utilizing more loopholes in the code than anyone and arguing for them to remain. The disconnect there is a huge point of contention.
No, he is saying taxes should remain low on high income earners (less deductions). So, he would also be affected.
Sorry, can you clarify or expand on this? Are you saying that he is for closing all loopholes, but the tax rate for high income earners remaining low (or decreasing)?
We can speculate until CE&P explodes into a black hole. I still think speculation isn't going to make anyone move away from Romney and towards Obama.
On this board, you're correct. I expect the only people who can possibly be undecided here are the ones trying to figure out if they'll vote 3rd party.
However, in the general public, it appears that there are lots of undecideds, and this is something that could factor into their decision. Especially if Romney keeps harping that the poor need to pay more.