Five Questions Mitt Romney Must Answer

Mon, 07/16/2012 - 6:26pm

The more everyone finds out about Mitt Romney’s finances, the more questions they have. Perhaps that’s why he’s hiding as much as he thinks he can get away with.

Today, The Boston Globe reported that Romney was still running Bain Capital two years after he claims he left the firm, directly contradicting his campaign’s denial that he was involved in deals that led to layoffs, bankruptcies, and American jobs getting shipped overseas.

It’s a pattern of secrecy, and this is just the latest example of him trying to hide the truth from voters. There are a number of issues in play right now – questions to which voters deserve answers:

1) Why won’t Romney come clean about his taxes? He seems intent on being the first presidential nominee in over 30 years to keep his financial records hidden from the American people. Earlier this year, Governor Romney hedged when asked if he’d follow the precedent set by his own father, George Romney, and release multiple years of tax returns. After pressure from fellow Republicans, Romney released one year – 2010 – which raised many more questions that full disclosure would answer. Here’s why that matters: Presidents make important decisions for this country, and Americans ought to know the motivations behind those decisions.

2) Who are the secret supporters raising millions for his campaign? I’m not talking about the shadowy outside groups – I’m talking about the people in charge of raising money for Romney’s campaign and the Republican Party. Romney refuses to reveal his fundraising “bundlers,” something even George W. Bush did when he ran for president. Why is that important? Because we’d never know whether these “bundlers” were getting special consideration in decisions made in a Romney White House.

3) What’s up with this corporation in Bermuda? One of the Romneys’ assets revealed in his 2010 tax returns is a corporation that had previously been transferred to a blind trust the day before he took office as governor. The single year of taxes he’s released shows that at some point it was moved back into Romney’s sole ownership. What’s going on? And, crucially, what’s the purpose of having a corporation in a known tax haven like Bermuda in the first place?

4) Why did he have a Swiss bank account? Even his closest allies, like Republican House Speaker John Boehner, can’t explain why any American running for president would have ever kept his money in a secretive Swiss bank account.

5) When exactly did he stop running Bain Capital? Today’s Globe story sheds light on the two years he now claims he wasn’t running the firm. According to legal documents Mitt Romney signed and filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, he was the sole owner, chairman of the board, CEO, and president of Bain Capital, drawing a salary as an executive until late 2001, and legally responsible for decisions the company made until that time. The Romney campaign denies this report is true, but the SEC documents with Gov. Romney’s signature are hard to refute. If he was in charge, it means his role in deals that led to layoffs, bankruptcies, and outsourcing is much deeper than he has admitted to date.

Everyone deserves the right to judge for themselves whether Romney’s motivations, experience, and perspective are what they want in a president. But Mitt Romney doesn’t want people to have the information they need to make those judgments.