Mitt Romney has a money problem.
For weeks the former head of Bain Capital has dodged calls to release his tax returns. His reluctance is, of course, understandable—a man’s money is his own concern. But in a system where elected officials are required to make financial disclosures (look up your congressman here: http://tinyurl.com/3bm3a6v) and where it is customary for presidential contenders to challenge their richer opponents to release theirs (see Obama’s call for Hilary Clinton to release hers in 2008: http://tinyurl.com/7ph2clw), Romney’s dithering makes it appear as if he has something to hide.
There are a number of reasons why he’d want to keep his 1040s under wraps. The US tax system wrongly favors individuals with high incomes and who have access to creative accountants. Mitt Romney claims to earn an “overwhelming majority” of his income from investments, which are taxed at fifteen per cent—ten per cent lower than the marginal tax rate for a person making $50,000. And if he were to release tax returns from the years he spent at Bain, they would reveal that he benefited from the infamous “carried interest” rule. So in a general election where income inequality will be a vanguard issue, is Mitt Romney the man the republicans want to represent them?
But as much as his past can be a burden, it is also what buttresses his campaign. At Bain Capital, Romney sought out struggling companies, then replaced ineffective managers, improved operations, and sold the presumably healthy companies to pocket huge sums of money for investors and himself. It’s this experience that gives his presidential campaign credence. This experience, he claims, imbued him with the knowledge and principles to be an effective leader.
It’s no wonder then that republicans receive his candidacy with such trepidation. On one hand, he’s the businessman and outsider that they yearn for– the quintessential capitalist with sharp business acumen. But on the other, he is the cigar-chomping rich man who makes ten thousand dollar bets in public and who says he “did not earn very much” from speaking fees last year, even though it is estimated he received nearly $340,000 for his services.
No one begrudges Romney for being rich. In fact, most people probably envy him. He certainly has qualities we’d all like to see in ourselves—determination, entrepreneurship, and self-efficacy. But we remain disenfranchised by his detachment from us after a lifetime in the upper echelon.
What’s damning is that many do not believe that he earned his wealth in an honorable way. Attack-ads paint him as corporate raider, coming in the night to pillage and suck dry any business in his path. People see him not a creator of wealth and jobs, but a bizarre-o-world Robin Hood who crumbled the homes of the poor to build his own mansion. People are still hungover from the Wall Street party that went on for far too long, and that left the country with nearly nothing to show for it. As Henry Ford said, “A business that makes nothing but money is a poor business.”
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