Memo: Why is Hillary hiding her tax returns?

[RBInMaine]

Obama campaign memo: Why is Hillary hiding her tax returns? (I for one would like to know. She is the ONLY candidate who refuses to release the records NOW. PS - Good for you team-Obama ! Start putting the shit to her ! This is only the tip of the iceberg !)

The Clinton campaign today maintained that “the vetting of Barack Obama has just begun.” The truth is, more than a year into this campaign, some very simple vetting of Hillary Clinton has yet to start.

In the face of her unwillingness to release her tax returns, Hillary Clinton has made the false case in this campaign that she is more electable because she has been fully vetted. When it comes to her personal finances, Senator Clinton’s refusal to release her taxes returns denies the media and the American people the opportunity to even begin that process. Though her campaign has tried to kick the issue down the road, Democratic voters deserve to know, right now, why it is she is hiding the information in her tax returns from last year.

The Clinton campaign has said that they have released copious amounts of financial information but there are many questions about their private dealings that could be answered in their tax returns but not in the information that is currently available. For example, here are eight pieces of information that could be learned from her tax returns, the accompanying schedules, and attachments:

Effective tax rate – including whether or not any tax shelters were used to reduce it
Amount of income for spouses by source
Amount of stock gains and losses
Gross income for the couple
Amount earned from stock dividends
Amount of household employment taxes paid
Personal exemptions taken
Charitable contributions made

Senator Clinton has also claimed that she is too “busy” to release her tax returns. Given the fact she is able to loan her campaign $5 million, you would think the Clintons would be able to hire an accountant. The reality is that she wants to keep this information hidden from voters. The people of Wyoming, Mississippi, Pennsylvania and the rest of the country should wonder why.

[LeftCoast]

1. Why is it that people hold the Clintons to different rules?

:shrug:

[scheming daemons]

4. Obama released his returns..... not a different standard

When you loan your campaign $5 million... the voters have a right to know where the money came from.

[hueyshort]

10. why did he lie to the press

by saying his team didn't call the Canadian Embassy and tell them to ignore what Obama was saying about NAFTA in Ohio, that it was just rhetoric?
I like a liar president. I love George Bush II

[frylock]

12. what does that have to do with tax returns?

try and stay on topic.

[npincus]

14. Bullshit- the Canadian Embassy DENIED that Obama's people called THEM

and Obama stated the Canadian gov't reached out to Prof. Goolsbee first, and they met as a courtesy. Have a read:

http://www.nytimes.com/2008/03/04/us/politics/04nafta.html?em&ex=1204779600&en=bc1674b80a8eb1e3&ei=5087%0A

[LeftCoast]

22. This non-denial denial you mean?

“There was no intention to convey, in any way, that Senator Obama and his campaign team were taking a different position in public from views expressed in private, including about Nafta.”

[LeftCoast]

20. If Obama wants to release his early, that's his business

[eleny]

8. She's holding herself to different rules

McCain and Obama released theirs. The question is legit - What has she got to hide?

Btw, she said she was fully vetted - That won't be true until she releases those tax returns

[LeftCoast]

21. They released them early and that's their business.

Clinton is under no obligations to follow their new rules.

[eleny]

27. She's the one who said she was fully vetted

She's the one who said we know everything there is to know. Unless she releases those returns, that's not true.

If there's nothing to hide, it would be good to show us now - before any more primaries.

edited for syntax

[Life Long Dem]

2. I don't know why but would like to know.

Is she planning on informing us before the nominated candidate? We'd have no choice but to offer her and her tax returns to McCain this November if not.

[Diane R]

3. Okay. Hillary has 7 weeks now. I think she has 'time' to release her tax returns.

[Skwmom]

25. She's already filed her 2006 return. What's the hold up?

[Recursion]

31. Why are people this stupid? We're NOT talking about the 2007 returns

We're talking about the 2006 returns, and the 2005, 2004, 2003, 2002, and 2001 returns.

[Diane R]

33. I knew that. It's her earlier returns. My point was sarcastic; that she had 'time' now.

[Vinca]

5. Why, I bet she just gave so much money to charity she's

embarrassed to release the returns. Humility and all.
:sarcasm:

[Life Long Dem]

6. I'd like to know what Hillary supportors think.

Would Hillary supportors allow her to go up against McCain while she has hidden her finances from us? Because we all know what damage unknown info like this can do for a dem candidate.

Are Hillary supporters going to ask Hillary as well?

[Rageneau]

23. Hillary will do the right thing. She always has and always does.

Hillary will release her tax returns when she becomes the nominee. That is her legitimate right. Anybody who accuses her of wrongdoing because she will not PROVE she has not done wrong -- unless they are a hypocrite -- will then agree that all of Obama's records should be open to scrutiny, too, incluing his records in the state senate, and including all his dealings with Rezko, Inc.

Let's use ONE standard for All candidates. Hillary will comply with all reasonable requests when it is time to. Will Barack?

[Larkspur]

7. I read reports a while back that Bill was lobbying for Uribe of Columbia

and for a free trade act between the US and Columbia. Betcha he's making millions using his former contacts to help screw average working Americans with lobbying for free trade deals. Uribe has the blood of union activists on his hands and Bill completely ignores it so he can get his fix to his addiction to money. That would explain why Hillary refuses to release their tax records. It would have killed her in Ohio and in Pennsylvania. Obama needs to keep hitting on why the Clintons won't release their tax returns.

[eleny]

9. Uh-oh

[KittyWampus]

15. What, you mean Bill Clinton used his influence and his ex-WH staff to help push the new NAFTA

with Columbia?

Didn't Gore refuse to be seen with Uribe?

[Larkspur]

26. Bill, Uribe, and Al Gore were invited to some conference...

When Al found out he would be sharing the stage with Uribe, who was accused in the press of murdering union activists, Al declined the invitation. Bill was busy praising Uribe and how good a free trade deal with Columbia would be. I always felt that Al Gore was a more moral person than Bill and Al proved it in this case.

[Marie26]

11. Me too, actually

She'll have to release them soon.

[FrenchieCat]

13. Isn't Hillary supporters that remind us almost daily that Whatever

Hillary says about Obama, it only helps "toughen" him up for the General?

Wouldn't that hold true of Sen. Clinton's hidden information within her tax returns as well as other issues that up to this point have only been countered with......."They've tried this on Hillary before" mantra?

Just sayin'.

[Tropics_Dude83]

17. Obama Campaign chief Axelrod says

On call, Obama strategist Axelrod calls Clinton “a habitual non-discloser” and says “the vetting of Hillary Clinton has yet to start.”

[carlotta]

16. Did John Edwards release his tax returns

...while he was still in the race?
The answer is No.

"In a break with the tradition of recent presidential campaigns, most of the major presidential candidates aren't releasing their income-tax filings.

Edwards has indicated that he will keep his tax returns private, and while Romney is still considering his options, he has never released his returns in previous runs for office.

Sens. John McCain, R-Ariz., and Hillary Rodham Clinton, D-N.Y., aren't saying whether they will or not, but neither has released income tax forms filed this year.

[PurityOfEssence]

18. Because they'll put her on the defensive

Her and her husband's finances are very complex; they're rich, they have investments, written properties that generate income, business ties, property and all sorts of details. Even if they're completely aboveboard, questions will arise and she'll have to stop everything and explain them at length. Remember: in the media age ACCUSATION IS PROOF OF GUILT. The very act of having to defend herself or explain herself against mischaracterized huffings will waste precious time and put her on the defensive.

Some things are private and some things are on the borderline.

They also have dealings with many people and organizations that they may not particularly want to make public, out of respect for those entities. It could cause damage to individuals and organizations if it was discovered that the Clintons were benefactors. Perhaps they're just being respectful of their associates.

This is absolute crap. Why don't you demand her medical records to make sure she's not hiding anything there?

This demand is DELIBERATE gotchaitis and there's no cosmic right for us to expect them to prostrate themselves at our feet.

[Skwmom]

24. Accusations is proof of guilt - hmmm isn't that what the Clinton camp

has been using against Obama.

Wow - ever hear of thou doth protest too much. Those tax returns must be a gold mine.

[WillYourVoteBCounted]

19. $54 Million reasons why she doesn't release them

and that's up about $20 million since 2006.

And up $54 million since 2000.

[redqueen]

28. I wonder if it's got anything to do with this...

[ananda]

29. She's not!

They'll be released April 15th.

[Medusa]

30. Too busy huh.

Damn, who would have thought she does her own taxes.
:eyes:

Real story? The Clinton campaign can't come up with enough lies to spin them.

[samplegirl]

32. Because she's smart....

and she's not gonna do so just because the RNC asks.
They tried to do this to Kerry as well. She know's that once you give into the RNC....it's never enough. It's like turning over Power of Attorney.
Let's see.... the Republican party has trouble finding anything
let alone producing.