Monday, January 16, 2012

POLITICS - Campaign 1012, Mitt Romney

"Shields and Brooks on Romney Taking Heat, Ron Paul's Vision, Obama's Fundraising" PBS Newshour 1/13/2012

Excerpt on Mitt Romney's former business career impact

MARK SHIELDS, syndicated columnist: ..., I don't see it as a positive. He's a long way from doing that, Judy.

I mean, they doubled the return of their investors. I mean, Bain has been enormously successful. But David's right. There were cases where they did take dividends and big management fees for companies that eventually did go under.

And I think this is a -- this is a real problem for him and for Republicans in particular. I mean, this is not a year you want to be seen as one of the 1 percent. And it's going to put greater pressure on him, on his tax returns, which he has been reluctant to reveal.

And I think it's going to show that he probably paid taxes and carried interest rate that private equity people -- which is 15 percent, which means he, a multimillionaire of really remarkable dimensions, paid taxes at a lower rate than a steelworker or a schoolteacher or a firefighter. And I think that's, again, complicating.

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