“He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain. But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?
Dan Primack
CNN Money
7/31/2012
Harry Reid is either a liar or a lousy critical thinker.
FORTUNE — Senator Harry Reid (D-NV) made political waves today by claiming that a Bain Capital investor told him that Mitt Romney didn’t pay any taxes for a 10-year period.
One of two things has happened: (1) Reid is simply making the whole thing up, in order to pressure Romney into releasing tax returns for years prior to 2010, or (2) Reid’s investor pal lied, and the Senator didn’t bother to conduct even a mild vetting before sharing the accusation with reporters. Either way, shame on gossipy gentleman from Nevada.
Let me make this crystal clear: Investors in private equity funds do not receive, nor are they entitled to request, personal tax returns for fund managers. Not just at Bain Capital, but everywhere. For example, ask the person managing your 401(k) for their personal tax returns. See how far you get.
What makes this particular claim even sillier, of course, is that Romney hasn’t even been managing Bain funds for the past 10 years (no matter when you believe he left the firm). He’s been a silent investor like Harvard and MIT. Think the guy managing private equity for Harvard can get the personal tax returns of the guy managing private equity for MIT? Yes, that’s another rhetorical question…
The article continues at CNN Money.
H/T The Right Scoop
CAJ note: We ask this question all the time: if someone as wealthy and as high-profile as Mitt Romney owed 10 years of taxes, wouldn’t the IRS know about it?
And didn’t Obama just hire over 16,000 new employees for the agency to enforce his Obamacare mandate? So, it’s not a matter of not being able to enforce the tax laws.
And hasn’t about half the administration and its federal employees owed back-taxes…like, oh, the Secretary of the Treasury?
So…isn’t this just another diversion from real news?
And wasn’t that Harry Reid beating his wife in the parking lot at Chick-fil-A last weekend? “Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain...”
Related: Harry Reid, rumor monger, with an assist from the Washington Post
The desperation to defeat Mitt Romney has induced Democrats to demean themselves with tactics no respectable adult would embrace. Even the Daily Kos is appalled.
But The Huffington Post proved they will publish anything, even speculation and innuendo, just to see Obama re-elected. In the words of DaTechGuy, Can we stop calling the Washington Post a “newspaper” now?
Update: … And the Pulitzer Prize for Recycling Second-Hand Rumors From HuffPo …
Update 2: From the comments at Althouse:
- Beta Rube said…
- On a related note, Police in England arrested an Olympics fan who tweeted something about an athlete “letting down your (deceased) father” after losing a rowing match.Harry Reid said something about Romney’s dad being “embarassed” by his son. In America, we don’t arrest people for being insensitive bottom dwelling scummy jack asses, we put a (D) after their name and send them to Washington.
- 8/1/12 8:37 AM
- Fen said…
- Romney has already released the required 2 years of tax returns.This is a campaign ploy to flush out the rest of his returns, so that the DNC and MSM can find anything to take out of context for their class warfare op.
- 8/1/12 8:41 AM
- Hagar said…
- Now, if Reid’s “source” should turn out to be within the IRS rather than Bain, that’s another matter, but then both Reid and his source would also be in deep doodoo – at least when the DoJ changes after New Years!
- 8/1/12 8:46 AM
Update 3: Harry Reid: One time this guy called and said Romney didn’t pay taxes for ten years “Pathological politician”
