Nonsense and BS regarding Romney's taxes

Since Mitt Romney released his tax returns, there has been a tidal wave of BS flowing over the internet and the airwaves. It has been a while since I have seen so much commentary offered that was not only wrong but also idiotic. Here are a few examples:

1)Mark Steyn was in today subbing for Rush Limbaugh. Steyn went on at length about how Romney had a bank account in Switzerland until last year when it was closed because it would not look good in the campaign. Steyn made fun of the name of Romney's trustee who issued a press release announcing this. The sad thing is that Steyn did not understand what he was talking about. Romney's trustee issued the press release because Romney put his assets into a blind trust when he ran for governor of Massachusetts in 2002. That means that for the last ten years, Romney has not been managing his own money; in fact, Romney does not even get information about where the money is invested. As a result, Romney did not set up a Swiss bank account; Romney's trustee did that. Romney's trustee is also the one who decided to close the account. So what all this means is that the existence of a Swiss account tells us nothing at all about Romney. The same thing is true about the account in the Cayman Islands which has also been at the center of controversy.

2) The Center for American Progress came out with a press release explaining how Romney used charitable contributions to lower the rate of taxes he and his wife paid to an amount less than than the rate paid by many other Americans. Think about that. Romney gave over $4 million to charity in 2010. This is money that he gave to non-profit organizations and religious groups. Only a liberal group could say that such gifts were bad because they lowered Romney's taxes. Indeed, the tax code specifically allows for the deduction of charitable contributions in order to encourage such gifts. Romney's enormous contributions are a good thing, not something to criticize.

3) The Center for American Progress also criticized Romney for paying such a small portion of his income in payroll taxes. This is a truly idiotic criticism. Romney paid the maximum amount in social security payroll tax that any American could pay in 2010. That's right, no one in the entire country paid more social security tax than Mitt Romney in 2010. Of course, that is because there is a maximum amount set for the social security tax for each person. Nevertheless, only a brain dead lefty group like the Center for American Progress could criticize Romney for paying the maximum amount of social security tax.

4) Other criticism on the internet spoke of how Romney had his assets in the Cayman Islands to avoid US taxes. I mentioned above that the choice of the Cayman's was made by Romney's trustee and that Mitt played no role in that selection. This criticism raises idiocy to new heights however. Let's be very clear: when and American puts funds in the Cayman Islands, it does not reduce the taxes that are owned on those funds. What happens with some in the Caymans is that people secretly park money there and then hide it from the IRS. That's right, people hide behind the bank secrecy laws in the Caymans to illegally hide funds from the IRS. Romney, on the other hand, is not hiding anything. He is declaring all of the Cayman funds. That means that he is paying all of the US taxes on those funds just as if they were in a bank account in Boston. So the criticism of the accounts is just plain wrong.

I am not going to go through all of the idiocy that is washing around the internet on this subject. The point here is that Romney has now released his taxes. And guess what? There are no smoking guns or even shady items that have been found. Hopefully, this will be the end of the entire matter.