stuck in the mittle

Mitt Romney Proves He Paid Taxes Every Year by Saying ‘I Have Paid Taxes Every Year’

Republican presidential candidate and former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney speaks during campaign event at the Jefferson County Fairgrounds on August 2, 2012 in Golden, Colorado. One day after returning from a six-day overseas trip to England, Israel and Poland, Mitt Romney is campaigning in Colorado before heading to Nevada.
Romney overdoing it. Photo: Justin Sullivan/Getty Images

Harry Reid needs to “put up or shut up,” Mitt Romney repeated again today during a rare media availability after a campaign event in Nevada. Of course, the same demand could be made of Mitt Romney. He keeps saying there’s nothing shady in his tax returns, and yet he refuses to “put up” and release them. Instead, like Reid, he just wants us to take his totally uncorroborated word for it. “Let me also say categorically: I have paid taxes every year,” Romney insisted to reporters. “A lot of taxes. A lot of taxes.”

Great, fantastic, congratulations. But Romney’s word is no better than Reid’s in this situation. In fact, even more so than Reid — whose source, if such a source really exists, might want to remain anonymous — Romney has the power to break this impasse at any time, while also clearing his name, taking his tax returns off the table as a campaign issue, and making an utter fool out of Reid and countless other Democratic “Returners.” It escapes no one that he’s choosing not to. 

Romney Again Insists He Paid Taxes Every Year