Romney should come clean on taxes, Bain

Editorials

Discussion

COMMENTING ON STORIES:

Welcome to our story comments feature. We welcome your thoughts and your opinions, including the unpopular ones. We only ask that you keep your conversations clean, civil and on the topic of the story you are commenting on.

Coinciding with our websites redesign, we launched our new story comments feature through Disqus.

Disqus gives users the ability to log into our story comments feature so that they may be able to track their conversations, receive emails when their comments get a reply or to even have your comments update onto your Facebook or Twitter accounts.

For the time being, our story comments feature will continue to have the ability to post comments anonymously. We reserve the right to require registration in the future using your name and verified email address.

Not all comments are deemed printable. Some are disqualified at the newspaper’s discretion for a number of different reasons. Please follow our Online Rules of Conduct at all times.

RULES OF CONDUCT:

We reserve the right to remove comments that are unacceptable, to wit:

1. False and inacurate statements.
2. Personal attacks. Explicit name-calling.
3. Harassing, harmful, vulgar, obscene and defamatory language.
4. Threatening statements or statements that suggest violence.
5. Hate speech of any kind.
6. Intolerant comments on religion, race, age, gender, sexual preference or disabilities.
7. Accusations of criminal activity.
8. Content that is harmful to children and minors in any way.
9. References to any type of sexual activity and other private matters.
10. Random and inflammatory statements that are off topic.
11. Advertising of any kind.
12. Typing in all caps.

WE ENCOURAGE REASONABLE AND COURTEOUS COMMENTS THAT:

1. Create conversation on issues of interest and concern to fellow readers and local community members.
2. Express opinions and contrarian views.
3. Stimulate debate with respectful language.
4. Stay within the boundaries of these rules.

WE RESERVE THE RIGHT TO SUSPEND OR TERMINATE ACCESS FOR:

1. Violating any of these Online Rules of Conduct.
2. Deliberately disrupting discussions with repetitive messages, meaningless messages or spam.
3. Misrepresentation of identity or impersonating another user.

WE WELCOME:

1. Flagging violations of these rules that you observe to our attention.

MONITORING:

We monitor comments regularly Monday - Friday, 8 a.m. to 5 p.m. Approval of comments outside of this time (including weekends) will be sporadic.

comments powered by Disqus

July 23, 2012

Romney should come clean on taxes, Bain

Anonymous Daily Star The Daily Star Mon Jul 23, 2012, 03:25 AM EDT

Mitt Romney's response this week to criticism of his campaign's secrecy regarding his record at Bain Capital and his tax returns has been, at best, awkward and uneven.

Romney's role at Bain Capital from 1999 to 2001 has come under fire because of Bain's investment during that period in companies that specialized in outsourcing jobs overseas.

Romney's campaign has responded by claiming that Bain took no part in outsourcing before 1999 _ the year Romney took a leave of absence to manage the Winter Olympics in Salt Lake City -- and Romney said last week he had "no role whatsoever in the management of Bain Capital after February of 1999."

But this argument was undercut by none other than Romney himself when he was running for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. When Democrats sought to remove Romney from the ballot by challenging his Massachusetts residency that year, Romney's attorney insisted that Massachusetts remained "the center of his social, civic and business life."

Romney himself told the Boston Herald in 1999 that his Olympics sojourn was only part time, and that his role in Bain's management would continue. And documents Bain filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission in 2001 and 2002 listed Romney as the company's "sole stockholder, Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer, and President."

Romney's disavowal of Bain's post-1999 conduct seems like an odd defense, given his willingness to take credit for investments that went well during that time. After reiterating last week that he wasn't involved with Bain after 1999, Romney added "there's nothing wrong with being associated with Bain Capital, of course."

But when asked by NBC's Peter Alexander if he can claim credit for Bain investments that were successful after 1999 while dodging blame for those that weren't, Romney said if a company succeeds, "I'm happy to point out that my involvement in helping get that business started and seeing it grow over the years."

Romney's timid circumlocution hasn't been nearly as persuasive as a robust, unapologetic defense of his role at Bain could have been. If Bain really shouldn't be ashamed of its record, why pass the buck to those Bain managers to whom he delegated his authority after 1999?

Equally unconvincing is Romney's insistence that there's nothing worth seeing in his pre-2010 tax returns. Romney faced intraparty criticism this week when Alabama Gov. Robert Bentley, former Mississippi Gov. Haley Barbour, News Corp CEO Rupert Murdoch and pundits George Will and Bill Kristol argued that Romney's secrecy over his tax returns is more damaging than their contents.

Romney's campaign this week batted down speculation that his returns might reveal years in which he paid no taxes at all. But as statistician W. Edwards Deming once said: "In God we trust. All others must bring data."