Taxing Romney

Josh Marshall delves into the question of why Romney won't release his tax returns. He thinks that the issue may have to do with the infuriatingly small amount his pays. A week ago, I offered the same thought. It has been estimated that Romney, though super-wealthy, pays only about 14% in taxes.

But there is another possibility. Romney is a Mormon, although some have questioned whether he is serious about his Mormonism. He is supposed to tithe to his church. Do you really think that's happening?

The issue won't go away. The DNC has made Romney's tax returns the topic of a video. Romney's son got into trouble when he said his father would release his tax returns when Obama released his grades and birth certificate. This has been derided as a "birther" joke, one which made Mitt look bad, but the college transcript business is a rather different matter. Some have questioned whether Obama even went to Columbia.

Legal Insurrection proclaims "“Tax returns for college transcripts” will not work." Maybe not, but we can't be sure until we give it a chance.

Mitt refuses to go along with his fellow Republicans on getting rid of the capital gains tax. If that conservative desideratum were achieved, the people -- yes, even the dim-bulb American people -- would learn that our rulers often live off of capital gains, and thus would pay no taxes. As the Washington Post noted...

Over the past 20 years, more than 80 percent of the capital gains income realized in the United States has gone to 5 percent of the people; about half of all the capital gains have gone to the wealthiest 0.1 percent.

“The way you get rich in this world is not by working hard,” said Marty Sullivan, an economist and a contributing editor to Tax Analysts. “It’s by owning large amounts of assets and having those things appreciate in value.”

Releasing Romney's returns would debag that cat.