Democrats, Media Get Punk'd: Romney Releases Tax Returns

[_Kevin Graham]

Alex Castellanos, the former Mitt Romney strategist from 2008 who has alternately been critical and praising of the current campaign, left no doubt where he stands on the decision to release a summary of the candidate's tax rates over 20 years.

"At first I thought this was an April Fool's Joke," said Castellanos, who tweeted something to that effect at me earlier. "But it isn't April. I can't imagine that David Axelrod will now say, I'm glad Mitt put this issue behind him. This will drag Mitt's taxes back into the debate. And there's not many days left. I just can't imagine why they would do this. There are 40 days left and you have now made more of them about Mitt's taxes....you don't serve a life sentence and then confess afterward. They've taken their beating on this (already) ... I just don't understand how a (being) 'little pregnant' strategy (works)."

Other Republican operatives have emailed in with a similar reaction - that the summary is going to revive, instead of settle, questions on an issue where what had seemed to be the worst was already behind Romney.

UPDATE: The tax returns for 2011 were ones that Romney had said he would release before Oct. 15, and the calculation the campaign made appears to have been that doing it today was better than, say, next Friday, the weekend before the debate. The summaries, which Romney had already said he wasn't doing, were what Castellanos was referring to.

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But nimrods like Droopy see nothing but genius behind this move. Because we all know the Romney campaign is led by absolute competence.

[_beastie]

It is not possible to create new wealth for investors without creating the jobs in the various productive ventures that create that wealth (as capital gains or dividend income) for investors. B

..... Of course the purpose of Bain Capital is "about creating profit for investors" and not "about" creating jobs per se. However, since the only way to create jobs is through private investment in productive economic activity, and the existence of productive economic activity is the only means to create wealth, and jobs are required to create wealth, a small portion of which is returned to investors as capital gains or dividend income, then the motives of investors and people like Romney who attempt to rescue ailing companies and turn them into economically viable enterprises (thus saving jobs that otherwise would have disappeared completely) isn't relevant, but what they do is.

Really. Please explain how Bain made millions even on companies that laid off workers and, sometimes, went bankrupt.

[_beastie]

Alex Castellanos, the former Mitt Romney strategist from 2008 who has alternately been critical and praising of the current campaign, left no doubt where he stands on the decision to release a summary of the candidate's tax rates over 20 years.

"At first I thought this was an April Fool's Joke," said Castellanos, who tweeted something to that effect at me earlier. "But it isn't April. I can't imagine that David Axelrod will now say, I'm glad Mitt put this issue behind him. This will drag Mitt's taxes back into the debate. And there's not many days left. I just can't imagine why they would do this. There are 40 days left and you have now made more of them about Mitt's taxes....you don't serve a life sentence and then confess afterward. They've taken their beating on this (already) ... I just don't understand how a (being) 'little pregnant' strategy (works)."

Other Republican operatives have emailed in with a similar reaction - that the summary is going to revive, instead of settle, questions on an issue where what had seemed to be the worst was already behind Romney.

UPDATE: The tax returns for 2011 were ones that Romney had said he would release before Oct. 15, and the calculation the campaign made appears to have been that doing it today was better than, say, next Friday, the weekend before the debate. The summaries, which Romney had already said he wasn't doing, were what Castellanos was referring to.

---------------

But nimrods like Droopy see nothing but genius behind this move. Because we all know the Romney campaign is led by absolute competence.

This is what's so funny about bcspace and droopy. They don't even understand what their own candidate is doing.

They had to release this information sooner or later, since Romney always promised to release his 2011 returns. Yet they knew they were in trouble because, if Romney took all the deductions he'd be entitled to, he'd pay a tax rate of 9-10%. That would make his previous assurance that he'd never paid less than around 14% suspect. So they had to arrange a higher tax rate by not taking the deductions to which he was legally entitled. They knew this was going to cause a commotion, because we have to give them more credit than we have to give to people like bcspace and droopy who somehow see this as a victory. So they dumped it on a Friday, and they chose to dump it now versus in a few weeks in the hopes that the stink would fade by the time of the actual election.

[_Droopy]

Really. Please explain how Bain made millions even on companies that laid off workers and, sometimes, went bankrupt.

I suppose because they don't work for free. But, given their overwhelming success rate in rescuing failing companies and preserving/creating jobs, this is all just crying over spilt class envy, isn't it?

[_Droopy]

They had to release this information sooner or later, since Romney always promised to release his 2011 returns. Yet they knew they were in trouble because, if Romney took all the deductions he'd be entitled to, he'd pay a tax rate of 9-10%.

No...uh...no. Romney pays - as an individual, as an employer, as an investor, or as a stock holder in other companies (putting his money to work creating wealth for others instead of simply hoarding it) a wide variety of layered, federal and state taxes, much of which taxes the same dollars over and over again. His personal federal income taxes are only the tip of a much more substantial tax iceberg. Further, the unemployment insurance he pays on anyone he employs is a tax. All federal and state business regulations he pays are essentially levied taxes - business overhead created and, in essence, income preemptorily confiscated by government before net profits are realized. All the compliance costs incident to filing, paying, and avoiding further taxation are government imposed taxes on investment, risk, entrepreneurship, business expansion and new hiring. All must be accounted for before net profit is realized.

That would make his previous assurance that he'd never paid less than around 14% suspect. So they had to arrange a higher tax rate by not taking the deductions to which he was legally entitled. They knew this was going to cause a commotion, because we have to give them more credit than we have to give to people like bcspace and droopy who somehow see this as a victory. So they dumped it on a Friday, and they chose to dump it now versus in a few weeks in the hopes that the stink would fade by the time of the actual election.

He also gives away a great deal to charity, more, according to most empirical numbers I've seen, than any given room full of sanctimonious, snow-driven pure liberals on earth on any given Sunday. So Romney is still bad for paying more than he had to and not taking all his deductions? That's a first.

So they dumped it on a Friday, and they chose to dump it now versus in a few weeks in the hopes that the stink would fade by the time of the actual election.

If you were Mitt Romney, you would dodge, evade, and hide your money in exactly the way Romney has, and probably in ways that he hasn't. This is nothing but emotion-based class war frothing, and its fundamental vulgarity and ugliness stand here for all to see...the very basis of the Democratic party's hold on a large segment of the electorate, and as venal as it has always been.

Romney's tax rate is utterly irrelevant to his qualifications to be President, let alone his personal morality or ethical bearing. I would do exactly as he as done were I him and facing a multilayered obstacle course of one of the most punitive, anti-business tax regimes in the western world: try to pay as little as possible, take a lot of it out of circulation where the greedy hand of government cannot get its thick, rapacious, incompetent fingers on it, and give away large quantities of it to charities of my personal choice, and invest other portions in productive economic activity where real (private sector) jobs are created and actual economic growth occurs, and economic growth - wealth creation - is the only true, ultimate answer to poverty.

[_Kevin Graham]

I'm guessing Droopy still believes Romney released his tax returns?

LOL.

If Droopy thinks ROmney's paid tax rate is all that is at stake here then he is mistaken. The actual tax returns from the past decade likely sheds a tremendous amount of light on what kinds of foreign investments Romney has been involved with. Has he been betting against the American dollar? Yes, he has. Has be been investing in China? Yes, he has. To most Americans these things matter, which is why Romney has to be a hypocrite and hide these things from them.

[_Droopy]

LOL.

If Droopy thinks ROmney's paid tax rate is all that is at stake here then he is mistaken. The actual tax returns from the past decade likely sheds a tremendous amount of light on...

So now the truth is out. Kevin Graham is Harry Reid's Deep Throat at Bain. Thanks for the confession. Given that you know so much regarding what ten years of Romney's tax returns actually contain, what else could one assume?

Either that, or you're just emptying your bladder into the wind.

I suspect I know which is the case.

[_beastie]

Really. Please explain how Bain made millions even on companies that laid off workers and, sometimes, went bankrupt.

I suppose because they don't work for free. But, given their overwhelming success rate in rescuing failing companies and preserving/creating jobs, this is all just crying over spilt class envy, isn't it?

Do you even read what you, yourself, write?

You said:

It is not possible to create new wealth for investors without creating the jobs in the various productive ventures that create that wealth (as capital gains or dividend income) for investors.

That is obviously not true. Bain created new wealth for investors even when the companies engaged in massive firings, went bankrupt, and the business closed.

[_EAllusion]

He also gives away a great deal to charity, more, according to most empirical numbers I've seen, than any given room full of sanctimonious, snow-driven pure liberals on earth on any given Sunday.

Empirical numbers you say.

Bill Gates, Warren Buffet, and Larry Ellison are all Democrats. Something tells me they have given significantly more money to charity than Mitt Romney.

Steve Jobs was notoriously a dick about charitable giving, was liberal, and could be very sanctimonious. So there's that.

[_Jason Bourne]

You could not be more ignorant if ignorance was your life objective.

Private equity firms are not about creating jobs. They are about creating profit for investors. If that sometimes creates jobs, fine. If it sometimes destroys jobs, fine.
d

Private equity firms, while the do have the objective of creating profits for their investors, the best way they do it is by taking companies to the next level. I have a client that is a PE fund. They look for companies that have a reasonable track record of profits. They invest $$ for partial ownership that is often some sort of company reorganization, or at times by part of all the business outright. The infusion of new capital allows the company to grow to the next level, expand, gain more revenue share and become more profitable. If this happens the PE fund may sell the company later at a profit. Many times the involvement of the PE fund is with current owners. As the business now has additional capital to grow it often adds more jobs, and at times many more jobs. I have watched this at least 6 times with this client that I mention.