…. you either kill yourself or shower with steel wool. Sarah Palin, the failed Vice Presidential nominee and half term Governor of Alaska, a woman who currently holds no official or unofficial position within the Republican Party, government, organization or association, is making demands. She wants Mitt’s tax returns and proof of a net gain of 100,000 jobs at Bain. So do I.
“Governor Romney has claimed to have created 100,000 jobs at Bain, and people are wanting to know: is there proof?” Palin told Sean Hannity on Fox News. […] Palin said that Romney needed to come clean about his record, given the likelihood that Democrats would probe the tax issue and Romney’s tenure at Bain if he were to become the Republican nominee.
Oh yes, we will, Mrs. Palin. We will probe long, and we will probe it hard.
Mrs. Palin has not made any endorsements yet, and you wonder what the hell she is waiting for. Perhaps, please Jesus, she will offer herself as the last minute alternative? I doubt it. But one can dream.
As it turns out, Mr. Romney has very good reason to never release his tax returns. He has a carried interest problem. It’s a legal tax loophole that taxes private equity and venture capital income at a lower, 15% rate, as compared to 35% on ordinary income. Democrats and the Obama Administration have tried to eliminate this loophole for the last three years to no avail.
Romney still receives seven figures in income a year from his time at Bain Capital, a company that would buy out struggling companies, break them up and sell the parts, all the while laying off thousants of employees. Steve Benen summarizes the problem:
1. Mitt Romney is worth $250 million.
2. He got rich by laying off American workers.
3. He pays a lower tax rate than you and the rest of the middle class.
4. He wants to be president so he can keep it this way.