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Jihadin wrote:Wait....Hotsauce misplaced a wife?

Maybe she's buried right there by his side?

"Somebody told him. It is a fact," she said.

Damnit Nancy. It was starting to look like you might actually grow a brain, but then you opened your mouth again and something innately stupid came out of it.

Now, onto Romney. I think only a fool, or a fanboi would claim Romney paid all his taxes. Surely he's managed to slip some of his income. But there is no way in hell someone with his profile goes ten years and pays nothing.

Was it not a fact that somebody told him?

He spoke the truth, somebody said that Romney paid no taxes. Reid didn't lie. He didn't say Romney paid no taxes, he said "somebody told me Romney has not paid taxes".

Sounds like perfectly fine GOP logic to me.

LordofHats wrote:

"Somebody told him. It is a fact," she said.

Damnit Nancy. It was starting to look like you might actually grow a brain, but then you opened your mouth again and something innately stupid came out of it.

Now, onto Romney. I think only a fool, or a fanboi would claim Romney paid all his taxes. Surely he's managed to slip some of his income. But there is no way in hell someone with his profile goes ten years and pays nothing.

I wouldn't make that claim. Didn't Obama have a heck of a time trying to find a democrat who paid taxes to fill a cabinet position? apparently senators and congressmen have problems paying taxes.

So its not outside the realm of possibilities that Romney has went a few years without paying any taxes. It's not like he's already done some magic with his money to get his IRA.

http://www.jasonmorrison.net/content/2012/a-little-math-on-mitt-romneys-ira/
"I ran across this article on Mitt Romney’s $101-million IRA and it led me to comment on Google Plus. The max yearly contribution for an IRA is $5000 (with some caveats) so it’s hard to see how one could get from there to $101,000,000 without something a bit more creative going on"

With this kind of stuff going on, he probably gets money back from the government.

I was pointing out Nancy's stupidity, not Reid's. Granted, Reid is being kind of stupid making a statement like that too, cause walking into the senate and saying in front of the nation that "a guy like totally told me Romney hasn't paid taxes in ten years" is really really dumb no matter how you cut it.

Mostly I just hate Nancy Pelosi because I honestly think Sarah Palin is a smarter human being, and that really says something about what I think about Pelosi.

If I were to come to you and say that " Some guy told me Obama was born in Kenya," I'd be called an idiot by anyone with half a brain, especially if I was a senator and said it in the Senate.

The silliness of this situation though is kind of funny

Sounds like perfectly fine GOP logic to me.

Double standard and all that.

I thought Romney was in hiding/disgraced after his London comments? What happened to the Mitt hits the fan campaign?? You cannot take this guy seriously after what he said about London? America is lucky we didn't send a gunboat up the Potemac for his insults

If Romney insists that Reid is lying, why doesn't he just release his returns and prove him wrong?

Yeah, his tax returns are either as bad as what Reid said or worse.

The reason this matters? It's more of a character thing. Another character thing about Romney is that he said he wants to lower taxes on the top 5% and raise them on everyone else, because of some trickle down bs. Despite the fact that all the money from the rich doesn't trickle down, it goes to offshore tax havens. He would know.

So its not outside the realm of possibilities that Romney has went a few years without paying any taxes. It's not like he's already done some magic with his money to get his IRA.

I'm sure he's gone most of his adult life without paying all of his taxes. The rich never do. But there is no way in hell that he's never paid any taxes in the last 10 years. It's practically impossible.

BTW: There's more than one kind of IRA. One kind, allows the holder to make investments using their IRA, which can cause an IRA to accrue huge amounts in a short time with proper management.

If Romney insists that Reid is lying, why doesn't he just release his returns and prove him wrong?

"Obama could just release his birth certificate!"

But of course when people demand that everyone just looks at them like they're crazy. Romney, or anyone for that matter, should not be forced to prove they are not a alien from Jupiter here to anally probe Kim Kardashian to see if 42 is the secret of life or automatically be shipped off to Area 51 for study.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:I thought Romney was in hiding/disgraced after his London comments? What happened to the Mitt hits the fan campaign?? You cannot take this guy seriously after what he said about London? America is lucky we didn't send a gunboat up the Potemac for his insults

An insult to find that the contracted security company couldn't come up with half the people it promised as 'disconcerting'? You get offended way too easy!

It's sad that American politics has been reduced to scrutinizing tax returns. To be fair, Western politics in general suffers from a lack of ideas and vision. But god, what a choice for the American public come November :(

I yearn for the days of Jimmy Carter!!!


Automatically Appended Next Post:
@ Gen Lee, if anything it made me laugh. There was a lot of phoney outrage, mostly stirred up by the newspapers, but the reactions it caused on American news networks were quite funny.

Do_I_Not_Like_That wrote:It's sad that American politics has been reduced to scrutinizing tax returns. To be fair, Western politics in general suffers from a lack of ideas and vision. But god, what a choice for the American public come November :(

Given the economy and the mud being slung from both sides concerning it it only makes sense...

LordofHats wrote:

If Romney insists that Reid is lying, why doesn't he just release his returns and prove him wrong?

"Obama could just release his birth certificate!"

Didn't he? If they didn't how is Jumping Joe the Sheriff* calling it a fake? This issue was building before Reid said anything, as it was already noted that he had released the least amount of tax filings of any president in decades, by only releasing the minimum required by law. Considering all other candidates have released more it looks suspicious even without bizarre accusations for congress. G.W. Bush was a pretty secretive guy and he released 10 years of tax filings. Now McCain also technically only released 2 years, but that is because he released his taxes while in the Senate so they were already available. This isn't some mundane CEO position where just doing the minimum legal requirements is enough. Perception in politics is important and can be costly. Look at how many believed Obama was (and is) a secret Muslim even though it is total bs. Even Republicans have been calling on him to release his taxes. He gains nothing by hiding them, and loses a lot of credibility by ignoring the issue at this point. It will just hang over the campaign like a poison cloud. I have no doubt that some Democrats are relishing the role reversal, even if it is a little apples and oranges if you go beyond the surface.




*I can't remember his last name and don't feel like Googling it atm.

Well, it doesn't have to be that way. The state of the current American economy is nothing compared to the 1930s, and yet, FDR stepped up to the plate and promised action to turn it around. Now, the merits and problems with new deal are neither here nor there, but if you compare the calibre of politician from then, to now, Romney and Obama are political pygmies. They stand for nothing, they represent nothing, they believe in nothing. That's not a slur against America. For the past 30-40 years, politicians in the western world have become beholden to the market. More so now the cold war is over.
True ideology is dead and buried. If Romney is a genuine Republican, then my name's Frazz and I have a 'I love Texas' tattoo on my backside!
Similary, if Obama is a democrat, my name's George Washington!

Ouze wrote:I think he definitely should release his records. What's he got to hide, right? What's the big deal, this whole thing would go away as soon as he released them, right? Why is he spending so much money to prevent them from being released?

Considering that the Dems have gotten some traction on this issue, I think it's safe to say that the Romney team has discussed it at length and decided that to do so would be worse. I have read that some in the GOP disagree and think he just needs to release them, deal with whatever, and then move on.

I tend to agree, but then I don't know what's in there. There may be ample fodder for 1000 more commercials, who knows. Obviously, it's a bit of a catch-22 for Romney, and this is why the Dems aren't remotely done with this story.

Maybe none of this is fair to Romney, but I tend to chalk it up to being the downside to running a mega-rich guy for POTUS. There are probably some skeletons in the closet pertaining to how someone gets that wealthy that aren't going to play well with the average voter, especially in slow economies.

Ahtman wrote:Didn't he? If they didn't how is Jumping Joe the Sheriff* calling it a fake?

That's not my point. My point is that the argument "just release the papers" is just a statement to prove guilt, cause of course he's guilty, why else wouldn't he release them? It's stupid, especially since it'll probably go the same way as Obama's Birth Certificate.It's stupid game he shouldn't have to play, but of course, Obama and Reid probably know they can score points by playing it while Romney refuses to play.

I tend to agree, but then I don't know what's in there. There may be ample fodder for 1000 more commercials, who knows. Obviously, it's a bit of a catch-22 for Romney, and this is why the Dems aren't remotely done with this story.

Honestly, I'll bet Romney has made political donations in the past that now, with a run for president, would backfire on him. Romney isn't a conservative, he's really a moderate, but he has to play the conservative game to even have a shot at being a Republican president. He's probably donated to charities and fund raisers that Republican voters might not approve of and used them as tax write offs.

He also probably doesn't want people to see just how rich he really is, so that wouldn't surprise me either.

I would guess that he paid very little in tax through 2008 given that he was probably largely 'in' a market that cratered, just like everyone else. That would have been written off as a loss. Similarly, since he's largely an investment holder, he is likely taxed at the lower capital gains rate through that entire period, just like Warren Buffett.

LordofHats wrote:

Ahtman wrote:Didn't he? If they didn't how is Jumping Joe the Sheriff* calling it a fake?

That's not my point.

I wasn't saying Romney was guilty, just that I thought Obama had released his birth certificate. I don't care if he releases his returns or not. I'm interested in how it will play out in the same way that a person views a science experiment. I just don't see an upside to the whole thing at this point, unless he has some huge skeletons in his closet, in which case it would be good to keep towing the line about doing the minimum required by law and hoping to get in under the wire.

LordofHats wrote:He also probably doesn't want people to see just how rich he really is, so that wouldn't surprise me either.

I don't really buy that. We already know he is insanely rich, and trying to pretend otherwise just makes him seem out of touch, and maybe a bit effete. Acknowledging his wealth would probably get more people to like him than trying to be a regular Joe. Donating to charities that other, less moderate Republicans might not like is certainly a possibility, but I doubt that it would be the only thing that would hold them back.

Reid should reveal her source, honestly.

If she has a reliable source, they should blow the whistle and then we can punish Romney's company.

IF.



Companies are punished far too lightly these days. We need to start revoking their license to do business instead of merely tossing out fines.

Did Reid get a sex change

Mel......Reid is a he....

Jihadin wrote:Mel......Reid is a he....

Can we really know without seeing a birth certificate?

Dunno why I siad she. Honestly though, I don't care. They're not my representative so I don't pay much attention to them.

Ahtman wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Mel......Reid is a he....

Can we really know without seeing a birth certificate?

Wait, your right.

I demand Reid prove he's not a woman! How can we trust a majority leader who lies about her biology!

Frazzled wrote:

Jihadin wrote:Wait....Hotsauce misplaced a wife?

Maybe she's buried right there by his side?

Im just flattered you guys think im good enough to be in a relationship.

I say screw evidence for anything, make all the accusations you can!

Bonus question - which group's "I Used to Love Her" had those lyrics (no intranetz peaking!)

Ahtman wrote:But as part of that discussion he also said that to not use them would mean losing every single time; only a fool goes into a fight with both arms tied behind their back. They are a reality of politics and all the rhetoric in the world doesn't remove them from the equation. At least this instance the politician is up front about it. There is a history of politicians having to make compromises going back to, well, the stone age. Nit picking this one is just being blinded by paritsan glasses.

I'm not nitpicking, I just think it's sad that he feels he has to make compromises like this one. It's obvious he'll never be able to raise as much money as the Republicans anyways - might at well stay true to his ideals.
Yes, not doing so potentially puts him at a disadvantage compared to his opponent. But the same goes for a lot of other dirty tricks.

Ahtman wrote:Besides, neither Romney nor Obama use them, as they are separate entities from the campaigns, and it would be illegal for either of them to coordinate with them.

Oh come on.
http://www.iwatchnews.org/2012/01/13/7866/rules-against-coordination-between-super-pacs-candidates-tough-enforce
http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2012/01/20/colbert-super-pac_n_1215975.html

You know, it's almost gotten to a point where you can do away with elections altogether and have citizens buy shares in a corporate government. Wouldn't that be more efficient? And totally non-socialist!

PS: Sheesh, Colbert is awesome. I need to watch more of this guy.

You can never have too much Colbert

Frazzled wrote:Bonus question - which group's "I Used to Love Her" had those lyrics (no intranetz peaking!)

GNR, I wouldn't think you'd know that group, I think they came around after 8 tracks

Holy crap...I remember the 8 track in my mom and dad's car.....