I just cannot understand the secrecy.
Why exactly is Mitt Flip Romney holding on to his financial information this long and this hard. We already have lots of data that would make the average voter look at Romney with squinted eyes and a raised eyebrow. Data like his $75 million investment in a company that destroyed fetuses, his multiple offshore bank accounts that set up to bet against the US Dollar, his work at Bain Capital where he oversaw thousands of American jobs eliminated, and now this: a new revelation that he has another offshore account set up as an IRA account containing between $20 to $100 million dollars.
With the present rules of an IRA account where a maximum yearly contribution of about $5000, questions remain about how in the world Romney’s IRA could have as much as $100 million.
To put things into perspective, if Romney followed the present IRA rules, he would have to contribute $5000 for 20,000,000 years to meet his present IRA holdings. We know Romney’s Mormon religion forbid him from drinking alcohol or doing drugs, but no matter how healthy he eats or how extreme his exercise routine is, he is not 20,000,000 years old!
But alas! Paul Krugman is saying there are “legitimate” ways Romney could have saved this fortune in an IRA. Krugman says:
There are legitimate ways that could have happened, just as there are potentially legitimate reasons for parking large sums of money in overseas tax havens. But we don’t know which if any of those legitimate reasons apply in Mr. Romney’s case — because he has refused to release any details about his finances. This refusal to come clean suggests that he and his advisers believe that voters would be less likely to support him if they knew the truth about his investments.
And that is precisely why voters have a right to know that truth. Elections are, after all, in part about the perceived character of the candidates — and what a man does with his money is surely a major clue to his character.
Exactly!!!
