To call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a mad dog as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank did is an affront to the canine community and those suffering from legitimate mental illness. Reid was completely sane when he spread hearsay about an anonymous Bain Capital investor who allegedly told him Mitt Romney paid no taxes for 10 years.
Doesnt Reid a Mormon like Romney subscribe to the prohibition in the Ninth Commandment: Thou shall not bear false witness? He appears to pay no political price because hes a Democrat and unlike Joe McCarthy to whom some are comparing him no prominent fellow Democrat or top media figure has asked Reid the question put to the commie-hunting McCarthy by attorney Joseph Welch in 1953: Have you no sense of decency sir?
Reid is a sideshow a clown in a political circus that seeks to draw the publics attention away from President Obamas record. Romneys tax returns wont create a single job or revive the economy. Romney must change the subject by shifting the focus to where it belongs: to President Obama his failed promises and his disastrous economic mismanagement.
If he wants to belabor the point Romney can challenge Obama to release his college records and other information mentioned in his book Dreams from My Father. He can offer to release more years of his tax returns in return for the transparency Obama promised.
Or Romney can reiterate that he has fully complied with the law including the payment of all taxes owed. Would his critics prefer he pay more than his legal obligation? In addition Romney has certainly made sizable charitable contributions while Biden and his wife according to USA Today averaged just $369 in annual charitable contributions over a 10-year period.
What about the president? Heres what Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler wrote: When then-presidential candidate Obama released his tax returns during the 2008 campaign it was revealed that he began making significant gifts to charity after he started making serious money from his books -- and after he decided to run for president.
Heres what the numbers look like: 2005: $77315 to charity out of income of $1.66 million (4.6 percent); 2004: $2500 out of $207647 (1.2 percent); 2003: $3400 out of $238327 (1.4 percent); 2002: $1050 out of $259394 (0.4 percent). In 2010 the number increased to 13.6 percent.
We can go tit for tat on contributions or income taxes forever. The tax returns issue is a smoke screen for the Obama administrations failures. The Romney campaign now appears to be doing what it should to reclaim and redirect the narrative. Romney can prevail if the issue becomes government spending.
People know that waste is a moral failure. Romney could go after Pentagon waste. Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus recently wrote: How can the Pentagon keep $2.5 billion left over from a canceled program sloshing around for reinvestment by the Army when Capitol Hill and the White House are worried about Pentagon budget cuts and national security?
Romney has begun to press the president on his reform of welfare reform. The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month it will consider waivers to the work requirements for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Requiring welfare recipients to work was a hard-won provision of the landmark welfare reform law passed by a Republican Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. And it worked. Those receiving welfare benefits instead of relying on government assistance were compelled to transition themselves toward work or educational opportunities as a way of creating a better life for themselves and for their families.
Senator Reid is a stink bomb at the garden party. Let Dirty Harry as some have dubbed him continue to demonstrate his flawed character. Romney should not descend to the gutter with him. He should ignore Reid and focus on what most Americans care most about: rebuilding our shattered economy.
Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America.
To call Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid a mad dog as Washington Post columnist Dana Milbank did is an affront to the canine community and those suffering from legitimate mental illness. Reid was completely sane when he spread hearsay about an anonymous Bain Capital investor who allegedly told him Mitt Romney paid no taxes for 10 years.
Doesnt Reid a Mormon like Romney subscribe to the prohibition in the Ninth Commandment: Thou shall not bear false witness? He appears to pay no political price because hes a Democrat and unlike Joe McCarthy to whom some are comparing him no prominent fellow Democrat or top media figure has asked Reid the question put to the commie-hunting McCarthy by attorney Joseph Welch in 1953: Have you no sense of decency sir?
Reid is a sideshow a clown in a political circus that seeks to draw the publics attention away from President Obamas record. Romneys tax returns wont create a single job or revive the economy. Romney must change the subject by shifting the focus to where it belongs: to President Obama his failed promises and his disastrous economic mismanagement.
If he wants to belabor the point Romney can challenge Obama to release his college records and other information mentioned in his book Dreams from My Father. He can offer to release more years of his tax returns in return for the transparency Obama promised.
Or Romney can reiterate that he has fully complied with the law including the payment of all taxes owed. Would his critics prefer he pay more than his legal obligation? In addition Romney has certainly made sizable charitable contributions while Biden and his wife according to USA Today averaged just $369 in annual charitable contributions over a 10-year period.
What about the president? Heres what Washington Post Fact Checker Glenn Kessler wrote: When then-presidential candidate Obama released his tax returns during the 2008 campaign it was revealed that he began making significant gifts to charity after he started making serious money from his books -- and after he decided to run for president.
Heres what the numbers look like: 2005: $77315 to charity out of income of $1.66 million (4.6 percent); 2004: $2500 out of $207647 (1.2 percent); 2003: $3400 out of $238327 (1.4 percent); 2002: $1050 out of $259394 (0.4 percent). In 2010 the number increased to 13.6 percent.
We can go tit for tat on contributions or income taxes forever. The tax returns issue is a smoke screen for the Obama administrations failures. The Romney campaign now appears to be doing what it should to reclaim and redirect the narrative. Romney can prevail if the issue becomes government spending.
People know that waste is a moral failure. Romney could go after Pentagon waste. Washington Post columnist Walter Pincus recently wrote: How can the Pentagon keep $2.5 billion left over from a canceled program sloshing around for reinvestment by the Army when Capitol Hill and the White House are worried about Pentagon budget cuts and national security?
Romney has begun to press the president on his reform of welfare reform. The Department of Health and Human Services announced last month it will consider waivers to the work requirements for the Temporary Assistance for Needy Families (TANF) program. Requiring welfare recipients to work was a hard-won provision of the landmark welfare reform law passed by a Republican Congress and signed by Bill Clinton in 1996. And it worked. Those receiving welfare benefits instead of relying on government assistance were compelled to transition themselves toward work or educational opportunities as a way of creating a better life for themselves and for their families.
Senator Reid is a stink bomb at the garden party. Let Dirty Harry as some have dubbed him continue to demonstrate his flawed character. Romney should not descend to the gutter with him. He should ignore Reid and focus on what most Americans care most about: rebuilding our shattered economy.
Cal Thomas is co-author (with Bob Beckel) of the book Common Ground: How to Stop the Partisan War That is Destroying America.
