Quote:
Originally Posted by spence
While I would agree that calling out a single anecdote to pain a larger picture isn't exactly fair,
It isn't even inexactly fair, and in the case of Romney/Bain, the picture painted by Obama's team is a distortion verging on a lie.
I do think assessing what Romney might have really learned at Bain is fair in context of how he might apply it to Presidential leadership.
So now he must not only disclose tax returns, but also what he has learned?  Perhaps Obama should disclose what he learned in college by disclosing his school records.
A large private equity firm like Bain isn't like a normal business. Certainly private equity serves a necessary purpose in the marketplace, but these organizations are known for pushing the envelope when it comes to secrecy, intentional organizational complexity and tax avoidance schemes.
You could say the same thing about most members of Congress. And tax avoidance "schemes" are available to everybody. There is an abundance of investment firms, estate planners, and tax preparers who advertise their ability to shelter your income from taxes. If venture capital firms "are known for pushing the envelope when it comes to secrecy," perhaps they are merely exercising their 14th Ammendment right to privacy, as do those who get abortions. You imply that there may be some unnamed thing wrong, or perhaps illegal(?) about these things.
Romney made a hell of a lot of money at Bain and by some reports continued to after he technically left the company. It's interesting that with the transparency which usually accompanies a Presidential nominee, we still understand very little about Romney's fortune.
That Romney is being so tight lipped on the subject does leave several questions lingering.
-spence |
Nor do we understand much about the fortunes of the vast majority of members of Congress, including Pelosi and Reid who shout for the disclosure of Romney's tax records for the last 10 years instead of only the two years that he is submitting. They submit financial disclosures that are required by Congress, but not tax records which are far fuller and more detailed. Their claim is that they are not running for President. Well, they have as much to do with tax policies, and maybe more, as the President. Why shouldn't We the People know what venture capital firms they invest in and in what tax schemes they take advantage of and in which offshore tax shelters?
You are typically vague on the subject of leaving several questions lingering. That the questions are posed originally by Romney's opponents also leaves questions lingering. Could it be that they want to see those tax records, as legal as they apparently are, to find "evidence" that Romney is not "in touch" with the rest of us. That he is one of the rich one percenters who get special tax breaks and don't live by the same rules that the rest of us have to live by. Is that also why Pelosi and Reid and most members of Congress refuse to release their tax records? Nancy Pelosi's husband heads one of those super secretive venture capital firms, and the details of his tax records are not being disclosed in her financial disclosure to Congress. Yet they can accuse Romney of the same "secrecy" because they are not running for President?