Saturday Reads: Mitt Romney’s Religion, Politics, and Taxes
Posted: September 22, 2012 Filed under: 2012 presidential campaign, morning reads, U.S. Politics | Tags: 60 Minutes, apostasy, David Twede, excommunication, J.R.R. Tolkien, Mitt Romney, Mormon church, Scott Pelley, tax returns, The Hobbit 75th anniversary 44 Comments
Good Morning!!
Everyone is still talking about Mitt Rommey’s taxes and his struggling campaign. I have some interesting reads on those subjects, but first I want to all attention to a story from The Daily Beast yesterday by Jamie Reno that I think deserves more attention. The Mormon church in Florida is threatening to excommmunicate one of their prominent members who has written some negative on-line articles about Mitt Romney.
David Twede, 47, a scientist, novelist, and fifth-generation Mormon, is managing editor of MormonThink.com, an online magazine produced largely by members of the Mormon Church that welcomes scholarly debate about the religion’s history from both critics and true believers.
A Mormon in good standing, Twede has never been disciplined by Latter Day Saints leadership. But it now appears his days as a Mormon may be numbered because of a series of articles he wrote this past week that were critical of Mitt Romney.
On Sunday, Twede says his bishop, stake president, and two church executives brought him into Florida Mormon church offices in Orlando and interrogated him for nearly an hour about his writings, telling him, “Cease and desist, Brother Twede.”
Twede posted the letter he received from his stake president on his blog, Prozacville. His excommunication hearing “for apostasy” is to take place September 30. Twede wasn’t using his real name on-line, but the church learned his identity from someone at a pro-Mormon website, Foundation for Apologetic Information and Research.
So apparently the Mormon church is not as neutral in this election as it has claimed. In fact, ABC News recently reported that the church has been working to get Mormons registered in swing state Nevada.
In a provocative move within a religious organization that has sought to display strict political neutrality, an official of the Mormon church has disseminated a presentation across the key swing state of Nevada that urges members to vote and speak “with one voice” in the coming Presidential election that pits Mormon Mitt Romney against President Barack Obama.
“Any Mormon would understand exactly what’s being said there,” said Randall Balmer, a Dartmouth religion professor who has studied the church’s handling of Romney’s presidential bids. “This is very thinly coded language.”
Personally, I think this is very creepy. The church seems to be quite involved in this election–trying to encourage votes for Romney and at the same time attempting to silence critics of the prominent Mormon candidate.
If the Romney campaign was hoping that releasing Mitt’s 2011 tax returns along with a vague “summary” of his returns for the past 20 years, they will be disappointed. Most tax experts aren’t buying the “summary,” and lots of them are trying to figure out exactly what Romney is trying to pull this time.
I thought this piece in USA Today by Rick Newman was very helpful (h/t Dakinikat). Newman reads between the lines of the official release and finds some oddities. First, somehow $7.2 million disappeared from Romney’s income between January when he filed an estimate and now on his official return.
Between January and October of this year, Romney’s adjusted gross income for 2011 fell by $7.2 million. And it dropped by nearly $8 million compared with his AGI in 2010. His federal tax liability also fell, by similar proportions.
The most likely explanation is that Romney’s accountants transferred income from Romney’s personal return to one of the three trusts that also generate considerable income, almost all of it from investments. It will take a detailed examination of the 2010 and 2011 documents to figure out what changed, but here’s a clue: Romney’s campaign has begun to focus on the “personal” tax rate paid by Romney, rather than the tax rate that might be associated with the trusts and his total income from all sources.
Newman also notes that the Romney representatives are emphasizing the word “personal” when they refer to Romney’s tax returns, suggesting that some kind of fudging is going on.
Romney hasn’t released tax documents prior to 2010, but some tax experts think his overall tax rate could have been very close to zero during at least a couple of years, possibly because of capital losses suffered during the stock-market wipeout of 2008, which zeroed out earnings for many investors.
The Romney campaign now says that since 1990, “the lowest annual effective federal personal tax rate” Romney paid was 13.66 percent. In other words, the rate on what might be characterized as his personal income never fell below that threshold.
But that doesn’t account for the three trusts, or other investment vehicles that may have existed prior to 2010. And it’s unusual to limit the claim to “personal” taxes when Romney has acknowledged other types of income. So it’s possible that the effective tax rate on the trusts was very low at some point—and maybe even zero, which would have indicated a net loss for the year.
Greg Sargent talked to another expert, Roberton Williams, of the Tax Policy Center, about the 20-year summary and Romney’s claim that “Over the entire 20-year period, the average annual effective federal tax rate was 20.20%.” Sargent learned from the campaign that this represents an average of Romney’s tax rates over the 20 year period.
Williams tells me that this is a far less meaningful way to calculate the overall rate than the second way, which actually calculates the real tax rate Romney paid over the period.
Here’s why: The first way obscures the fact that income may have fluctuated quite markedly from year to year. If Romney paid his lowest rates in a number of the higher income years, the overall 20 percent figure would overstate the rate he actually paid over the whole period. Williams provided the following purely hypothetical example:
“Let’s say you have 10 years in which you paid 13 percent in taxes, and 10 years in which you paid 27 percent,” Williams told me. “If you average those rates, you’ll get an overall rate of 20 percent. But if the 13 percent years were high income years, and the 27 percent years were low income years, then his total taxes paid as a share of total income over the 20 years would be less, perhaps significantly less, than 20 percent.”
Yet in that scenario, the Romney campaign would be claiming, by its chosen metric, to have paid 20 percent.
This is very troubling, and I’m sure more detailed analyses will be coming. You have to wonder why Romney didn’t just keep stonewalling instead of raising lots more questions about his taxes.
There have been lots of stories this week about what Romney should do to rescue his flailing campaign, but the candidate himself says there no problem. At least that’s what he told Scott Pelley of CBS’ 60 Minutes.
Scott Pelley: You are slipping in the polls at this moment. A lot of Republicans are concerned about this campaign. You bill yourself as a turnaround artist. How are you going to turn this campaign around?
Mitt Romney: Well, actually, we’re tied in the polls. We’re all within the margin of error. We bounce aroun — week to week– day to day. There are some days we’re up. There are some days we’re down. We go forward with my message, that this is a time to reinvigorate the American economy, not by expanding government and raising taxes on people, but instead by making sure government encourages entrepreneurship and innovation and gets the private sector hiring again.
Scott Pelley: Governor, I appreciate your message very much. But that wasn’t precisely the question. You’re the CEO of this campaign. A lot of Republicans would like to know, a lot of your donors would like to know, how do you turn this thing around? You’ve got a little more than six weeks. What do you do?
Mitt Romney: Well, it doesn’t need a turnaround. We’ve got a campaign which is tied with an incumbent president to the United States.
Scott Pelley: Well– as you know, a lot of people were concerned about the video of the fundraiser in which you talked about the 47 percent of the American people who don’t pay taxes. Peggy Noonan, a very well-known conservative columnist, said that it was an example of this campaign being incompetent. And I wonder if any of that criticism gets through to you and whether you’re concerned about it at all….
Mitt Romney: I’ve got a very effective campaign. It’s doing a very good job. But not everything I say is elegant. And I want to make it very clear, I want to help 100 percent of the American people.
In non-political news, yesterday was the 75th anniversary of the publication of J.R.R. Tolkien’s The Hobbit. Corey Olson has written a history of Tolkien’s beloved book. Check it out at The Daily Beast. It’s quite interesting.
It’s getting late and I need to get this post up, so I’ll end there.
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It’s also possible that MItt “knows something” we all don’t know: that the voter suppression in the swing states is likely to earn him enough to reach that 50.1% of the electorate he needs to win. This may account of his assertion that his campaign is doing quite well.
If so, then we could be looking at another SC ruling as happened in 2000. Throwing the decison back into the waiting arms of a Right Wing court majority is not that far fetched considering what we have had to live with under Citzens United and the Bush “victory” that exposed them as a GOP political arm.
Mitt may appear to be “confident” knowing that there are those in the wings working their butts off to ensure his victory by any means available and there is not much we can do to change that.
I don’t think so. Voter suppression will work only if the race is very close. I could be wrong, but I think Obama is going to be leading by enough in the swing states. The PA law isn’t going to go into effect, and the Ohio situation has been somewhat neutralized. I think Florida will be the worst place. Keep in mind that Romney has almost no chance to win without carrying Ohio and either Florida or Virginia.
I also don’t think Romney appears “confident” at all.
I hope you are right. He just doesn’t appear to be “too bothered” by any of this campaign meltdown.
Have you noticed that no Republican governors or Congresspeople are leaping to Mitt’s defense? He’s out there all alone. No wonder Ann got so snappish in her radio interview a couple of days ago.
If he had been honest and said his campaign was a mess it would have almost been like admitting defeat at this point. A politician has to fake confidence or they got nothing.
Here is a new scheme on voter suppression
http://crooksandliars.com/susie-madrak/wa-goper-tells-11-million-voters-they
And also to Greg Sargent’s link, what Romney did with that 20 year “mash-up” was by going back 20 years it raised his over all percentage because of the tax rate under Bill Clinton. I think it’s very likely his rate the past 12 years is VERY low or 0.
Good morning post BB.
Two thoughts
The Mormon church is obviously, at least in some places, attempting to tell their flock how to vote. The SBC, the Catholic church and many other churches have done this for decades. Continuing to support Tax exemption as the moat that separates church and state is nonsense. Large church organizations are in the BUSINESS of selling their precepts and they will back whichever candidate endorses their message. They are a business and If they want to continue to influence using their collective church voice, then they have to pay up.
Mitt Romney’s interview with Scott Pelley proves he’s not in touch with reality.
I don’t mean to be disrespectful, but these religious beliefs drive me nuts!
You have to consider the “humor” of god who keeps passing down these mixed messages than sits back and watches the “faithful” carrying out “his will”.
1. Moses came down from the Mount with a list of dictated “do’s and don’ts” and god’s word they were “the chosen people”.
2. Centuries later Christ establishes “the one true church” that denies Judaism.
3. Centuries after that Mohammed instructs the faithful to kill all the infidels which includes Jews and Christians.
4. Later we have Joseph Smith offering a whole new version of “facts” that dismisses Jews, Christians, and Muslims.
5. And Scientology makes absolutely no sense whatsoever.
Jews await the Messiah. Christians believe that god was actually Jesus in disguise. Mormons believe that Jesus was only the son of god. And I have no idea where the Muslims come down on this argument of who was who, when or where.
Throw in those who believe cows are sacred, snakes are friendly, dancing is sinful,and suffering is a blessing. No wonder we wander around so confused.
“Jews await the Messiah. Christians believe that god was actually Jesus in disguise.”
You left something out Pat. Jews await the Messiah. Christians believe that Jesus was god and the Messiah. So the Jews are awaiting a Messiah that has already come and gone and the Christians are awaiting his return during which the Jews will either believe, thus becoming christians, or be left behind with the heathens like me! 🙂
I’ll know the “fix was in” if I see Kim Kardashian climbing up the ladder holding hands with Rush Limbaugh while I watch from below waiting to be “purged” by an avenging angel wearing Aramani and carrying a Smith and Wesson courtesy of Wayne Lapiere!
I would be thrilled to be left behind with you and without Pat Robertson and his ilk.
When they’re Raptured I hope they take this nut with them
When these guys leave we’ll finally be able to have Peace!
It’ll be a better world when the Rapture takes away all the hell-and-damnation-to-you-people Xians and leaves the rest of us here in peace!
With nothing but atheists and heathens here on earth we might have a clean healthy world and no war. Sounds like heaven to me!!
It has been reported that the Mormon Church “baptized” Obama’s mother.
Tell me that this practice is not insane!
And I forgot to mention the Evangelicals who believe that a “holy war” will take place soon in the mideast promising an army of angels led by Christ on a horse that will culminate in the slaughter of much of mankind who have “angered god” and only the “faithful” (them) will ascend a golden staircase to heaven while “down below” the rest will be crushed in the mayhem.
And all of this nonsense is supposedly coming from a benevelent god “who loves us all”.
Or as it is otherwise called, The Rapture!
From the NYT article on Romney’s taxes:
Way down in the article, a note that Paul Ryan “forgot” to report $61,122 in income for 2011.
How do you overlook more than $60,000?
You know how it is when you get busy and forget to empty your pockets before you throw the jeans with $60k in the pockets, into the dirty clothes basket? That’s inadvertent
Hey, I recently found $10,000 in loose change under my couch pillows. No biggie.
I found a dime once.
I guess the same way you overlook paying your taxes when you are the Secretary of the Treasury?
All these “mistakes” and “forgotten” funds are forgiven by the IRS but when anyone like us have a tax issue, no breaks are given or offered.
Got that right JJ.
Minkoff, I too was thinking about Geithner. Also Tom Daschle leapt to mind. This deceit is an equal-partisan player. Sadly.
I certainly won’t defend Tim Geithner, but Ryan is supposed to be such a detail-oriented “numbers guy,” yet he “overlooked” 1/5 of his total income when reporting his taxes? If he’s that absent-minded, he shouldn’t be proposing budgets for the entire country.
BB, National Journal on your scoop from a few days ago. That was a great catch!!! Great post this morning, thanks.
Romney’s Fundraising Comes Down to Earth
Thanks, Ralph.
BB, your comments about the Mormon church make me think of this cartoon from a month ago. It is by Bagley, the artist from the Salt Lake City newspaper:
DougJ at balloon-juice on the latest in wingnuttery.
Won’t you ever change your ways?
I would sure like to know what “charities” Romney gave to other than the Mormon church. I thought those donations would be itemized as they were in the 2010 returns, but they aren’t listed. Why did he give 30% of his income to “charity” last year? Just to look good?
Rural Midwesterners don’t think Romney cares about them. That could be big trouble for him.
http://www.latimes.com/news/nationworld/nation/la-na-small-town-wisconsin-20120922,0,2543317.story
WaPo: GOP retreat on taxes likely if Obama wins
Holy cow! This was bound to get out. How stupid can they get?
Sorry– This should have nested under Ralph’s Univision link.
I wondered how Romney got such a good reception on Univision. Now I know.
buzzfeed: How Romney Packed The Univision Forum
…and “apparently he was just a little sunburned.”
hahahaha!
What a screw-up:
In North Carolina a group associated with the teahadists true-the-vote people challenged about 70K people for being dead. Fortunately, the people were all alive when checked. 😉
No good deed goes unpunished when the greedy game the system!
Medicare Bills Rise as Records Turn Electronic
Asshats!
Greed trumps everything, doesn’t it? Motto of the Haves: Gang bang the Have-Nots!
Medical billing and reimbursement is built on an arcane, bean-counter-friendly system that clinicians hate. Yeah, my chart notes with our new EHR meet standards — as they did before — but now in a visually confusing, cumbersome style. But admin and the IT folks are happy. And vendor$ are happy too.
Have ya’ll seen this from Alternet: http://www.alternet.org/election-2012/take-look-what-paul-ryan-did-his-own-congressional-district-and-be-very-scared-your?page=0%2C0