General Discussion
Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsThe Romney Stall: My $10,000 Bet
Bruce Judson
Heres a $10,000 bet: Mitt Romney will stall and stall before opening his tax returns. His strategy is to open the returns after he is officially nominated at the Republican National Convention in August.
<...>
There seems to be little doubt that Romney is hiding something. Indeed, even a critical piece of his 2010 returns has still not been opened to public view. The only question is what Romney is hiding...In effect, there are now two potential realities. The first is that Romneys off-shore activities dont reveal any outright illegality but show a host of questionable or politically unpalatable practices. My moneys on this one.
In this case, Romneys strategy is to force Republicans, willingly or not, to line up and uniformly defend whatever his tax returns ultimately demonstrate. Indeed, once Romney is the nominee, the Republican Party potentially will face a Hobbesian choice: Either vigorously defend practices which would otherwise be indefensible (and characterize them as good and virtuous) or somehow remove Romney from the ticket, which would almost certainly hand the election to Obama. Once Romney is the official nominee, it would be a disaster for the Republicans if he were forced off the ticket. Romney is calculating that Republicans will join ranks and vigorously defend whatever indefensible behavior he is now hiding.
<...>
The second possibility is even more troubling. One doubtful, but possible, explanation is that Romney is part of the super-confidential IRS amnesty program for tax evaders with Swiss bank accounts who came forward voluntarily to pay limited penalties. This is only plausible if, as has also been reported, Romney never intended to release his returns. Otherwise the American people would hear the faint echoes of Richard Nixons famous statement, I am not a crook.
- more -
http://www.nationalmemo.com/the-romney-stall-my-10000-bet/
They'll defend Romney, and try to force the American people into accepting illegal and immoral behavior as virtuous.
Lindsey Graham is already pushing the notion that tax cheat = patriot.
Lindsey Graham thinks Mitt Romney is especially American for avoiding taxes
http://www.dailykos.com/story/2012/07/10/1108361/-Lindsey-Graham-thinks-Mitt-Romney-is-especially-American-for-avoiding-taxes
deldemocrat
(5 posts)what should we expect from a company named Bain Capital?....Mitt speaks french fluently...Bain means nothing in english but in french it means WASH....mouthwash is bain de bouche ..washroom is salle de bain...shower is BAIN DOUCHE ..nice !!!!!
so BAIN CAPITAL means washing capital OR washing money....the arrogance that he can name his company money launderers and americans would not catch on ...but he was right ...cant believe the media has not picked up on this.
"BAIN means money laundering"
...maybe it just means swimming in money made by destroying companies and people's lives.
Welcome.
renate
(13,776 posts)I speak a little French and that didn't even occur to me.
And welcome to DU!
morningglory
(2,336 posts)avoided the batman problem in advance.
lonestarnot
(77,097 posts)They always put their shit in the open in some manner to make fun of the stupidity of the lesser paid minions. This post should be in a thread all of its own.
JHB
(37,166 posts)...and whose 'Bain & Company' it was spun off from.
Sometimes a cigar is just a cigar.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bill_Bain_(consultant)
ProSense
(116,464 posts)DavidDvorkin
(19,505 posts)Ah! How devious!
How remarkably stupid that would have been.
SoutherDem
(2,307 posts)We have Romney going overseas in the next week or so, Israel and the Olympics that takes us to mid August then a week or so later is the RNC convention. I guess he could release them as he is boarding the plane hoping we will forget, that is not as good of a bet.
I think he is going to hold out as long as possible and maybe not release them at all. Democrats asks for them to be released who cares they won't vote for him anyway, Republicans asks for them to be released who cares they are going to vote for him anyway, they are the part of the electorate who has made up their minds. However, IF the undecided asks for them and basically says release them or we won't vote for you is the only way I think he will release them.
As to Graham, the problem of "it is American to legally evade taxes". As regular people we don't have those choices and if our tax rate is 15% or 25% that is it. For the rich it may be 35% but it can legally be taken down to 15% without much risk of breaking the law.
rfranklin
(13,200 posts)criminal tax evasion. Even though Romney may have gotten amnesty does not mean he didn't do something illegal.
ProSense
(116,464 posts)BumRushDaShow
(129,953 posts)And Lindsey Graham has had some falling out with the teabaggers so he had to do something to make up for it.
ThoughtCriminal
(14,052 posts)Indefensible behavior, Swiss bank amnesty and more surprises.
flamingdem
(39,336 posts)His party is already shakey about him - so it's just one more thing on the pile.
He plays the game of following the law, that's how he gets away with what he's admitted to so far.
He will not allow history to see him as a crook. So no go due to the Swiss Amnesty thing.
The problem there is only -- could he have been that shortsighted? I think he loves $ that much