MEDIA GETS CHOKE HOLD ON TAX ISSUE

“Only the Little People Pay Taxes”

By Victor M Adamus

The Late Leona Helmsley

 Leona Helmsley, earned the nickname “Queen of Mean”, for the way she ran a billion dollar hotel chain in prominent New York City.  She became infamous for federal income tax evasion and served 19 months of a 16 year sentence.  Her husband was not fit to stand trial or he would have suffered the same fate.  In Helmsley’s case a lack of communitarianism was also against her because of the number of people who testified she refused to pay workers for the work they did on her hotels claiming upon completion “shoddy workmanship”.  Some sued in court for the amount plus legal fees, others wrote it off as a bad debt.  Her flamboyant personality led the Feds to her doorstep after a review of her taxes taken together with the lawsuits filed by sub-contractors to recover their earned fees.  It prompted the IRS to audit the Helmsley’s taxes for up to 5 years.

Mitt Romney has a tax problem that I don’t think will ever go away.  Not during this campaign for President at least.  I firmly believe that party affiliation means nothing in his refusing to disclose 10 years of tax filings.  It has to do with communitarianism which brings the voting electorate to a community standard.  Why should one candidate disclose his taxes and the other one ignore the tax disclosure process completely?  It has much to do with tax evasion or something in his file that would shock the electorate.  Only a small group of advisors know about this problem and consider him disclosing it high risk.  As of this past weekend the speculation by talking heads and even some Republicans serving in Congress don’t like what they see.  Instead of a whole candidate who plays on an even playing field, something in Romney’s tax filings using a trickster type loophole that may have been legal but not ethical is stopping him from full disclosure. 

Romney has the bulk of his millions invested off shore.  His money has never been here to invest in America.  Yet he calls on the President to apologize to him for his campaign even bringing up the subject.  The Media is treating this behavior as hot news.  Someone, somewhere will trip onto something way too embarrassing for the voter electorate to accept.  It’s OK to make the big bucks but like Helmsley not OK to ignore paying your fair share of taxes.  There may even be years when Romney paid no taxes.  This wouldn’t sit well with the electorate either.

So the Republicans have themselves half a candidate who won’t play ball like the other candidates, running for President, the past 36 years.  Trust me:  This is going to hurt his chances to be elected.

The philosophy behind showing 10 years of past tax filings was started with Romney’s Dad when he ran for President.  He wanted to prove his loyalty to the United States.  His tax disclosure showed he made a lot of money but he also paid a lot of taxes on his personal income.  Not so with his son who has only caused thinking Americans to challenge his loyalty to the U.S.  Loyalty is an important ingredient if you are to take over the Oval Office and run the country for all the people.  What if his loyalty is really to Wall Street?  What if he put Social Security or Medicare at risk to help defer cutting taxes for the very wealthy?  It’s too late to test one’s loyalty after a national election and if the person who has not disclosed his taxes during the campaign wins the White House.

Like Helmsley, this is certain to be a rope around Romney’s neck and one that will drag him through the mainstream media until he makes the right decision to open those personal tax filings.

Mitt Romney