Tax Returns

Why are Romney’s tax returns important?  The answer to that question lies in his lack of understanding in the role the middle class plays in American economics.  For the past twenty years, the income and wealth of America’s middle class has either declined or, at best, remained stagnant.  For a number of those years, middle class Americans compensated for declining wages by using equity in their residences to make purchases they would not have been able to otherwise afford.  This use of their residential equity as an ATM created sufficient activity to allow the economy to maintain for a number of years, but eventually, the equity tapped out.  Combine that with the economic downturn caused by questionable banking activity and the deficit caused by tax cuts, war spending, and Medicare D and the country was hit with a full-blown recession.  Massive layoffs caused by the recession as well as by the closing of 54,000 manufacturing facilities when jobs were outsourced added to the “perfect economic shit storm”.  That brings us to the original question of Romney’s tax returns...just how did Romney make his millions can be answered by his disclosure of his tax returns.  His economic policy of low tax, less regulation contributed extensively to the previously mentioned economic shit storm so it is really questionable whether repeating these policies will reverse the economic recession.  It is obvious that the top 1% benefited from the lower tax/less regulation policies but not so obvious is the inability of the middle class to create the demand necessary to reverse the recession.  Romney’s claim that his business experience better equips him to turn the economy around is, at best, questionable.  If the tax returns show that Romney primarily benefited from the very things that caused the recession, his business experience will not be an asset.  Additionally, his experience as a CEO in a government role leads many to question his skills in this area.  His primary accomplishment as Governor of Massachusetts was his healthcare program, a program once implemented nation-wide, he promises to repeal.  The other possible information that could come from the Romney tax returns is the extent his wealth was derived from various government policies Romney claims to oppose.  The Bain issue and business experience was first cited by Romney as the reason he should be the Republican presidential nominee.  The time has past when Romney needs to offer proof that his business experience and business success can transfer from the investment sector to the governing sector.  His experience as governor of Massachusetts fails to offer this proof.  The only thing left to do so is the information found in his tax returns that shows how he earned his millions.