Presidential Politics are Taxing, by Arthur Tebbel – Pop Art #176 | @MDWorld

April 17, 2012 Arthur Tebbel 1 Comment

Dear Art,

Isn’t tax time stressful?  I’ve been working very hard for most of the last year trying to lock down the Republican Party nomination for president and some things just fall through the cracks.  I had to file for an extension on my income taxes this year.  Some people on the left and in the media are attacking me for this claiming that I’m using the extension as a smokescreen to delay releasing my tax returns to the public.  I’m a busy person, shouldn’t these people just take it easy and wait for when I’m good and ready.

-Mitt Romney

 

Mitt,

I want to tell you a story.  My grandfather set up the finances of my entire family as a labyrinth of accounts and seemingly pointless cross-family payments as a way of getting around estate taxes.  This is the first tax season we’ve really had to go through since he died, he passed last January and we were all sort of just sleepwalking through that tax season.  As a result I’ve had more conversations with my accountant this year than I have in my entire life up until this point.  I’ve had to correspond with lawyers and finance people in three different states and might end up filing amended returns going back four years.  I still filed all of my taxes on time.  I also don’t have hundreds of millions of dollars which I’m sure could pay for a far more extensive financial team.  It’s not a great look Mitt.

I can’t imagine what you actually have to hide.  Everyone already knows you’re very rich.  Much has already been made of you only paying 15% on your income last year and I’d be really stunned if you got that number even lower this year.  The Caribbean bank accounts have already come out so that can’t be it.  What exactly are you afraid of?  You’ll have to put these out eventually and the delay only means they’ll come out closer to the election, when more people are paying attention.  That can’t be good news if there’s something embarrassing here.

 

I don’t think anyone is laboring under the delusion that a poor person could ever be elected president in this day and age.  Hell an upper middle class person is really damn implausible.  You’ve got a ton of money and you got it because you started off with a healthy amount of money and influence and turned it into much much more.  Most years this probably wouldn’t be an issue at all but right now the wealthy and how much they pay in taxes is a big deal.  The “Buffett Rule” was successfully filibustered this week and the potentially expiring Bush tax cuts are probably going to be a major issue in the legislative calendar and potentially in the general election as well.  You won’t fool anyone into thinking you’re just a regular guy so rip that bandage off now, take your lumps and get on with it.  There’s more important stuff going on.