Evan Vucci/AP Photo
Mitt Romney busting out the white board during a chat with reports in Greer, South Carolina on Thursday.
Mitt Romney won't show us his returns from the past decade, but he said he reviewed them again to make sure everything's cool. Everybody go home, nothing to see here?
To help squash nagging rumors over his unreleased tax returns, the Republican presidential nominee claimed Thursday he never paid less than a 13 percent effective tax rate.
"Given the challenges that America faces — 23 million people out of work, Iran about to become nuclear, one out of six Americans in poverty, the fascination with the taxes I paid I find to be very small-minded compared to the broad issues we face," Romney told reporters at the Greer airport in South Carolina.
"I did go back and look at my taxes, and, over the past 10 years, I never paid less than 13 percent," he said. "Every year, I paid at least 13 percent, and if you add in, in addition, the amount that goes to charity, the number gets well above 20 percent." He made no specific mention of "income taxes."
He also responded to criticism from Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who recently suggested Romney paid zilch on his tax returns. "Harry Reid's charge is totally false." said Romney. "I'm sure waiting for Harry to put up who it was who told him what he says they told him. I don't believe him for a minute, by the way."
White House Press Secretary Jay Carney reacted by saying President 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."
In a recent interview with NBC's Rock Center, Ann Romney restated the campaign will not budge on the tax returns.
In the very same press conference, Romney busted out a white dry erase board to explain the differences in his Medicare plan verses President Obama.
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America, and the media covering the 2008 election put the most unvetted man in history into the Presidency of the United States, so now we are making up for it by asking to see everything about Mitt and Ann Romney's beings and past, including their colonoscopy films, one suspects.
Other than a pittance of a $100,000 CEOs annual salary (very out of line with 21st Century CEO pay that often runs into the millions) Romney was paid by Bain Capital from 1999 thru 2002 while Romney's severance of the the considerable francise value and good will value of the nations largest and most successful private equity investment firm (85% success rate in turning around previously failing companies in troubled industries). He drew no salary from either his heading the rescue and successful hosting of the Salt Lake City Olympics, and his years as Governor of Massachusetts.
Since 2002, his investments, and the investment income that they generate have been under the control of lawyers and financial advisors running his Blind Trust. They assemble his very complicated annual Income Tax Returns for the Federal and State of Massachusetts governments. Since 2003 the dividend and capital gains rates on that investment income has been 15%, and when you remove from that the deductions for charitable contributions, state income and local realestate taxes, and mortgage interest on primary residence, you have the picture of the 14% rate of his Income Taxes of 2010 and 2011 (preliminary) that his tax lawyers and accountants have reported to him.
Satisfied, or do you really want to see the colonoscopy films also? Not satisfied? Than go suck a big one, O'Donnell.
Your last two sentence say it all!
About you, not O'Donnell.
Keith, looks to me that you know a lot about Mitt's finances, are you one of his lawyers? or you are only one right wing idiot that repeat everything that the boss wanted you to repeat? if that's the case i would like to see your colonoscopy because your brains are showing me nothing. It's either that or the TAXES y prefer the latter.
You can see my taxes and my university transcripts, including awards like graduation Magna Cum Laude from University of Massachusetts with a double major in English language arts and Political Science/Economics double major, and the John Laughlin Award for the Junior with the highest academic average in the Public Administration curriculum of the Unversity of Connecticut. Testiment to my brains, missy!
Keith you can have the brains of Einstein the tongue of sharp serpant still doesn't amount to a hill of beans. Like Juan says your just another sheeple. Wake up and smell the coffee dude !
Grandpa Fuzz has neither the brain of a genius nor the rhetorical fangs that accompany a serpent's tongue.
His is more biblical, and like Samson, he possesses the jawbone of an ass...
As Lawrence so rightly points out every night, can you imagine the rightwing media's response if it were Pres Obama who was hiding his finances and paid a smaller percentage in federal income tax than lower to middle income Americans. They would be claiming this is more evidence of his being "not American" at the very least
Ah,….HELLO were not talking about Obama..the issue is Romney covering up something.
Have you ever wondered if Mitt really tithed the percentage that he's claimed to the church? It's a great amount, but if he didn't, would that also explain why he doesn't publicize his returns? In order to gain entry to a temple, a Mormon in good standing must tithe and go through a process of interviews in which he shows his knowledge of Mormon beliefs and that he's living the Mormon life, including character traits like truthfulness. This is done every two years, I believe. Getting into the temple is important for many reasons, but the added benefit for an ambitious person is increased leadership opportunities, admiration by all Mormons and close ties with wealthy and powerful Mormons,which can add to wealth building. If he didn't tithe at least 10%, he'd have a lot of explaining to do to the church, Ann and his family. Remember, his sons are married and I'm sure that they married in the temple. Was this done through lies? That would keep anyone like Mitt from releasing his returns. That could be a more powerful reason, considering the Mormon vote, than just the "privacy" issues that he's raising, but could be devastating to a Mormon family. Just wondering.
Why do rich people think that what they give to charity should somehow be considered "taxes?" I thought the whole point of those large donations was to reduce their tax rate....
Has anyone ever considered that his announcement is a calculated amount of the total of all taxes he has paid. There is never a direct reference to income taxes, so it made me wonder whether this 13% is a fictitious number based on the cumulative amounts income taxes, property taxes, sales taxes, or any other miscellaneous taxes he pays (as we all do). Were I to calculate my effective tax rate on my income to include all taxes paid, my effective tax rate would be much higher than just my effective income tax rate.
Interesting that during Romney's "white board" press conference, he said "I don't believe him for a minute" when he talking about Harry Reid's allegations that Romney went a decade without paying any income taxes.
Why would he say it that way unless he's lying?
If Harry Reid's informant is wrong or Harry Reid made the whole thing up, then why not just say that?? He should have said something like, "It's simply not true: Harry Reid is either a liar or he is trusting the word of a liar."
Romney keeps tap dancing around the tax rate & tax return issues. I think it's because his returns hide something even more damaging to his campaign than his continued refusal to release more.
reading comprehension is your friend.
He said he didn't believe reid's accusation that someone from Bain told him that Romney hadn't payed taxes. My goodness the education system is failing and its most evident over @ nbc
How to fund a $100 million IRA:
If you are a venture capitalist, your attorneys structure your venture capital stock interest to avoid IRS prohibited transaction rules, taxes and penalties. Your structure also depresses the stock value so it can be purchased with nominal funds by your IRA. Once you fire employees and refinance the corporation debt, the stock value goes up, way up.
The reason we want to see his tax returns, is because we are interviewing him for a job hire, and we need to know if he is trustworthy, and whether or not he is interested in the best interests of America. This is clearly a question of his integrity, his honesty and who he is as a person. We know that he flip flops on every political, social and economic issue, and he has lied to us in the past, present and future, so we know that he lacks integrity. He is more like Gollum, seeking the precious ring, and will say what he has to say, do what he has to do, to get the precious ring.
I have to wonder how a man running for the office of President of the United States on the strength of his expertise in managing major businesses, who would presumably demonstrate superior financial literacy and business acumen, would refer to charitable contributions as an increase in the amount of taxes paid.
Lawrence: Ann Romney's statement that she and Mitt "satisfied all legal requirements" is an empty claim. There are are "legal requirements" for tax return disclosure for presidential candidates. Candidates do this to allow the public to vet them for the job they seek. It's supposed to show transparency on their part and build trust.
That was also a swing and a miss for NBC's Natalie Morales. I'm really surprised that she didn't call Ann Romney out on that one.
Romney seems pretty oblivious to the benefits of this type of disclosure.
Candidate Romney stated, “I have paid at least 13% in TAXES every year….”. BUT he carefully does not qualify what kind of taxes constitutes that 13%.
As Candidate Romney owns properties in several states, he has obligations to pay to such taxes as school, property, sales, and state taxes. Could the total of his local and state taxes be his 13%? Is this is 13% in taxes?
Because we have been programmed to think of Federal Income Tax, our assumption is that he has paid 13% in Federal Income Tax.
Would someone raise this question please!
Such a low tax % is an indication that a majority of his income is derived from investments not employment.
Bingo. Lawrence was right. It makes perfect sense. By revealing the 13%, Mitt has narrowed the likely explanation to one scenario. The amnesty program came out in 2009. That's why he gave two years tax returns, not three. Unless Mitt is lying, which is less likely in that he would be politically dead if it were ever found out, then what's left that is serious enough to withhold his returns is the felony crime of using foreign accounts to evade taxes. As Matthew Yglesias's Slate article of July 17 explains, it was no longer a crime when the amnesty program came out, but it would still end of Mitt's political career.
Good going, Lawrence O'Donnell. You tipped us off and the 13% goes a long ways to confirm it.
Lawrence - Will the Romneys release their income tax returns for each year of his presidency if he's elected?!
Hey Lawrence. I once saw you make the connection that Ann Romney proved how "out of touch" her and her husband are with the American people because of a $900 dollar shirt she was wearing during an interview. So imagine my surprise when the Wife of the president who has failed this country so miserably, the wife of the president who promised us that if he used 800billion from the people who are hurting so badly in this economy that we would not see unemployment go over 8%... Imagine my surprise when you didn’t make any comments on the 1st lady’s $7,000 jacket she wore at the Olympics. Could you please explain to me the lack of coverage on that topic? I’m sure you’re a very busy person and I’m sure it was a momentary lapse in memory on how you feel about the price of clothing defining how “out of touch” someone is with the hurting in this country. I’m sure it isn’t you being a propaganda slut for the Obama campaign, I’m sure it isn’t you deliberately being a hypocrite in order to paint people who don’t agree with your “ilk” as evil money hoarding devils. Once again, I’m sure it’s a mistake – So I await your explanation. In the meantime, I’ll begin reading the replies from the 6 fans you have that watch your program while living in their parents basement blaming the country and its people for why they haven’t found the way out their parents front door.
Oh, you forgot to mention, the First Lady Michelle Obama was on her was to Buckingham Palace to visit the Queen of England! What would be an appropriate outfit for that? Mrs. Romney can wear her $900 shirt to "help her husband win the election" all she wants! End of story!