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[Chumly]

Why a summary of those ten years?

Because otherwise he actual returns would probably show the Swiss bank accounts

 

[AlteredBeast]

If you consider the Mormon Church a charitable donation.

depends on if he gave his donations as tithing or as part of one of the humanitarian efforts of the church. The former is used for maintaining the church and its offices, the latter is a force for good in any terms you can think of.

 

[Officerrob]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

Of course you do, that's why he's releasing it on a Friday afternoon

 

[Suikoguy]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

It could also dovetail into how much money he has given the Mormon church...

 

[Hitokage]

depends on if he gave his donations as tithing or as part of one of the humanitarian efforts of the church. The former is used for maintaining the church and its offices, the latter is a force for good in any terms you can think of.

The church reserves the right to use donations like fast offerings for anything it wants.

 

[Forever]

Who wants to talk about my tax returns?

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

Summary, he's hiding the rest.

A sanitized summary of his tax returns.

It was more oh the biggest type of story that could happen occurs right as I post.

So the pluses and minuses:

- Get to talk about wealth and tax rates again! Whee for the jobs message
- Bring Mormonism to the forefront
- Raises more questions than it answers (so why not just release all the actual tax returns, Mitt?)

+ Sort of discredits Reid (but not really because it's a summary)
+ Talking point "look I release my tax information"

I would hope as a country we don't do that. Honestly he could believe in Cthulhu or nothing for all I care.

Maybe that's the Jewish Liberal side of me that doesn't feel a person's religion is valid grounds. I mean Obama is Christian does that impart it all on him? Now if the person embraces a belief or it impacts what they do that's another thing.
Since as the Simpsons once said "Technically we're not supposed to go to the bathroom" Doesn't mean that Barack is the reincarnation of Kim Il Sung or Kim Il Jong.

 

[sharbhund]

The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor's statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

Didn't Mitt say that anyone that paid more in taxes than they owed wasn't qualified to be President?

Edit:

I don’t pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I’d think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.

http://www.forbes.com/sites/janetnovack/2012/07/31/romney-has-a-duty-to-exploit-every-tax-loophole-horse-feathers/

 

[AlteredBeast]

The church reserves the right to use donations like fast offerings for anything it wants.

The church can do anything it wants for any purpose. That doesn't stop them from actually donating millions and millions of man hours to important causes.

 

[Officerrob]

The church can do anything it wants for any purpose. That doesn't stop them from actually donating millions and millions of man hours to important causes.

As well as millions and millions to stop gay marriage

 

[pigeon]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

$1.5 million of that is a tithe. Take that figure out -- 2.5 million out of 14 million is 17%.

edit: Not saying that donating to LDS is not charitable, but it's worth noting that tithing is, in some sense, not a voluntary contribution for Romney.

 

[Hitokage]

The church can do anything it wants for any purpose. That doesn't stop them from actually donating millions and millions of man hours to important causes.

Or billions in business ventures.

 

[Loudninja]

Well now we have taxes and the 47% remark for awhile now lol.

 

[AlteredBeast]

Or billions in business ventures.

not "or", "and" is what you meant to type.


Honestly, some of you guys just can't see the good in anything.

As well as millions and millions to stop gay marriage

I didn't realize that the church actually spent their own money against Prop 8 in California.

 

[Hitokage]

Honestly, some of you guys just can't see the good in anything.

Bush increased aid to Africa.

...although some of it was abstinence education.

 

[Jackson50]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

Irrespective of twisted your argument becomes, this cannot be a winner for Romney. Under no circumstances.

$1.5 million of that is a tithe. Take that figure out -- 2.5 million out of 14 million is 17%.

edit: Not saying that donating to LDS is not charitable, but it's worth noting that tithing is, in some sense, not a voluntary contribution for Romney.

Ultimately, Romney's efforts are futile. It is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to enter the kingdom of God. Have you seen any camels passing through the eye of a needle lately? Poor guy.

 

[Forever]

Peggy Noonan is going in on Romney:

It is true that a good debate, especially a good first one, can invigorate a candidate and lead to increased confidence, which can prompt good decisions and sensible statements. There is more than a month between the first debate and the voting: That's enough time for a healthy spiral to begin.

But: The Romney campaign has to get turned around. This week I called it incompetent, but only because I was being polite. I really meant "rolling calamity."

A lot of people weighed in, in I suppose expected ways: "Glad you said this," "Mad you said this." But, some surprises. No one that I know of defended the campaign or argued "you're missing some of its quiet excellence." Instead there was broad agreement with the gist of the critique—from some in the midlevel of the campaign itself, from outside backers and from various party activists and officials. There was a perhaps pessimistic assumption that no one in Boston would be open to advice. A veteran of a previous Romney campaign who supports the governor and admires him—"This is a good man"—said the candidate's problem isn't overconfidence, it's a tin ear. That's hard to change, the veteran said, because tin-earness keeps you from detecting and remedying tin-earness.

 

[BotoxAgent]

a summary? LOL

 

[The Librarian]

Summary has been released. Looks like the embarrassing part is in the shelters.

 

[Officerrob]

Summary has been released. Looks like the embarrassing part is in the shelters.

Link?

 

[Loudninja]

Summary has been released. Looks like the embarrassing part is in the shelters.

Of course.

 

[Suikoguy]

Summary has been released. Looks like the embarrassing part is in the shelters.

Which makes me wonder why now, the 47% comments have already did their damage
now we will be talking about tax shelters for the next week, lol

 

[Plinko]

I think it's pretty damning that there are no individual percentage statistics for any other year. "Over the 20-year period" means almost nothing.

If the democrats are smart, they'll hit this point repeatedly.

Even the 14.1% figure should hurt him based on the fact that he made so much money last year. So many people that make much, much less are paying more than that.

 

[sc0la]

he should have just done these in april and got it out of the way. Now he just brought the whole issue up again and is obfuscating with "summaries", so he is just inviting ongoing questions.

 

[Kosmo]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

The VP debate means little, but I wonder if Ryan will try and hit Biden on it. What would he say if Ryan asked him directly "Explain to the American people why you donate so little to charity?"

 

[The Librarian]

Link?

Sorry about that.

Edit: Also, the rates represented are percentage of taxable income, not the percentage of Romney's economic income.

 

[Plinko]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

Until someone brings up the fact that it went to the Mormon church.

 

[Frank the Great]

why would he release any tax information right now . . . what does he have to gain other than distracting from the 47% comment?

the romney campaign has been in reactive mode for such a long time. what a bunch of losers.

 

[Loudninja]

I actually think this was the worst time he could have release them.

 

[googleplex]

Another nice ad. I hope this is airing in Florida

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l0WmdCjHF1I&feature=g-all-u

Devastating ad. Holy shit Mittens dun fucked up real good.

 

[Hitokage]

AlteredBeast: I understand your own devotion to the church and I respect your desire to consider things in your own terms, but I'm really not joking when I personally consider Romney to be an excellent spokesperson for the church organization. Moneyed business types in a corporate structure with a sketchy record that need to open their finances.

Sure, they've done good, but my opinion of their net value is not high.

 

[codhand]

The VP debate means little, but I wonder if Ryan will try and hit Biden on it. What would he say if Ryan asked him directly "Explain to the American people why you donate so little to charity?"

Zzzz

 

[pigeon]

why would he release any tax information right now . . . what does he have to gain other than distracting from the 47% comment?

the romney campaign has been in reactive mode for such a long time. what a bunch of losers.

I don't actually think it's about what he has to gain -- but he promised to release the returns before the election, and he'd really prefer to do it before it gets too close. That's why he's trying to dump it. He has to get it out of the way.

 

[RDreamer]

The VP debate means little, but I wonder if Ryan will try and hit Biden on it. What would he say if Ryan asked him directly "Explain to the American people why you donate so little to charity?"

You really think that'd work? I think most people would think anyone who asked such a question was a complete asshole.

 

[Officerrob]

why would he release any tax information right now . . . what does he have to gain other than distracting from the 47% comment?

the romney campaign has been in reactive mode for such a long time. what a bunch of losers.

He promised to release 2011 returns, so it needed to be done before the debates. No better time then a Friday afternoon right?

 

[Crisco]

Yeah, Bill Maher was right. He didn't want to release his tax returns because he didn't want people to see just how much money he was donating to his cult

 

[sc0la]

I don't actually think it's about what he has to gain -- but he promised to release the returns before the election, and he'd really prefer to do it before it gets too close. That's why he's trying to dump it. He has to get it out of the way.

also in a bad week. I think he is hoping for a bandwidth saturation of sorts in the media.

 

[Frank the Great]

He promised to release 2011 returns, so it needed to be done before the debates. No better time then a Friday afternoon right?

i forgot that he promised to release the 2011 returns tbqh.

The VP debate means little, but I wonder if Ryan will try and hit Biden on it. What would he say if Ryan asked him directly "Explain to the American people why you donate so little to charity?"

"i, like the vast majority of americans, make a fraction of the amount of money as governor romney does, but have to pay more than double in taxes. and if governor romney gets his way, middle class americans will have even less disposable income to give to charity while the wealthiest among us received further tax benefits and loopholes."

too easy

 

[Beer Monkey]

Has anyone in the media asked Romney "Did you take advantage of the IRS tax amnesty program in 2009 for hiding assets overseas"?

 

[Guevara]

Has anyone in the media asked Romney "Did you take advantage of the IRS tax amnesty program in 2009 for hiding assets overseas"?

No one has the balls to do so unfortunately. Though these returns might open the door.

 

[Kosmo]

If Romney can use this to pivot to a discussion about charity it could be a winner. He has given more to charity than Obama has by far. 30% to the 47%. That's a big story. I think Mitt is killing two birds with one stone here

Not in that way - here is a better line, if he can make it without being a rich schmuck about it: "Look, the President can say all he wants about those comments from last May. The fact is, I have given away over 30% of my income to help the the people he says I don't care about. Conversely, he hasn't given a dime to his own half brother who lives in poverty in Kenya."

 

[thefro]

Notice how many years in the summary there are before Bush lowered the Capital Gains Tax rate to 15%. That's what's bringing the average up.

The years from 2002-2009 are probably pretty similar to his '10/'11 rates.

Also this:

The Romneys’ generous charitable donations in 2011 would have significantly reduced their tax obligation for the year. The Romneys thus limited their deduction of charitable contributions to conform to the Governor’s statement in August, based upon the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.

 

[Black Mamba]

Romney was supposed to release 2011 tax returns around now, right? Maybe they bumped it up a week cuz of the 47% stuff. This "summary" smells like it was prepared before this week, too, so it isn't a direct reaction to the 47% video.

That said, the Romney campaign continues to think the electorate is mentally handicapped if a "summary" is going to be enough that seeing the actual returns. Especially regarding the Swiss account.

Not in that way - here is a better line, if he can make it without being a rich schmuck about it: "Look, the President can say all he wants about those comments from last May. The fact is, I have given away over 30% of my income to help the the people he says I don't care about. Conversely, he hasn't given a dime to his own half brother who lives in poverty in Kenya.

Attacking family is a sure-fire winner. Good thinking, Kosmo

Pretty sure most people don't look at LDS donations as charity, either.

 

[Forever]

Not in that way - here is a better line, if he can make it without being a rich schmuck about it: "Look, the President can say all he wants about those comments from last May. The fact is, I have given away over 30% of my income to help the the people he says I don't care about. Conversely, he hasn't given a dime to his own half brother who lives in poverty in Kenya."

His brother needs more bootstraps not more handouts!

 

[Officerrob]

Not in that way - here is a better line, if he can make it without being a rich schmuck about it: "Look, the President can say all he wants about those comments from last May. The fact is, I have given away over 30% of my income to help the the people he says I don't care about. Conversely, he hasn't given a dime to his own half brother who lives in poverty in Kenya."

It's a good thing you don't work for the Romney campaign. On second thought, with that kind of suggestion, you actually might....

 

[Manos: The Hans of Fate]

No one has the balls to do so unfortunately. Though these returns might open the door.

Sneak me into a media event, I'd do it for shits and giggles.

 

[codhand]

Peggy Noonan is going in on Romney:

Stop it. This is hard. You wanna try it? Get in the ring.

 

[Plinko]

Romney was supposed to release 2011 tax returns around now, right? Maybe they bumped it up a week cuz of the 47% stuff. This "summary" smells like it was prepared before this week, too, so it isn't a direct reaction to the 47% video.

That said, the Romney campaign continues to think the electorate is mentally handicapped if a "summary" is going to be enough that seeing the actual returns. Especially regarding the Swiss account.

CAMPAIGN SAYS ROMNEY AVERAGED 20 PERCENT EFFECTIVE TAX RATE OVER TWO DECADES

.

 

[The Librarian]

Not in that way - here is a better line, if he can make it without being a rich schmuck about it: "Look, the President can say all he wants about those comments from last May. The fact is, I have given away over 30% of my income to help the the people he says I don't care about. Conversely, he hasn't given a dime to his own half brother who lives in poverty in Kenya."

Lovely.

 

[Beer Monkey]

The fact is, I have given away over 30% of my income to help the the people he says I don't care about.

1) Churches don't count, they typically spend 8-10% of revenue on helping the poor.
2) 30% of his real income, or his taxable income (you know, that doesn't include the mysterious $100 million IRA and hidden overseas gains)?