Romney Has Problem Telling The Truth

If you have followed the presidential campaign as closely as we have you cannot come away without the unsettling notion that Mitt Romney has a real problem with telling the truth.  It not so much what he says that we find disconcerting.  It’s more about the things that he conveniently leaves out when making his points.  The governor’s recently released tax returns offer a case in point.

Romney has repeatedly told us that over the past decade he has not paid less than 13% of his income in taxes.  His recently released 2011 returns show that he paid taxes at an effective rate of 14.1%; slightly more than the 13.9% he paid in 2010.  But what Romney doesn’t tell us is that he manipulated his 2011 return to conform to his political rhetoric. 

According to Brad Malt, the trustee of Romney’s blind trust, Mitt and his wife “limited their deductions of charitable contributions to conform to the governor’s statement in August, based on the January estimate of income, that he paid at least 13% in income taxes in each of the last 10 years.” 

The Romney’s gave $4.6 million in charitable donations in 2011 but claimed only $2.25 million in charitable deductions.  Had they taken the full amount in deductions the Romney’s would have paid a lower percentage in taxes than he had previously claimed; far lower than the percentage paid by average Americans.  Romney conveniently omitted that little tidbit of information.

This strategy of omission has become a pattern in the Romney narrative.

Romney granted CBS NEWS an interview which aired last night on “60 Minutes.” 

Romney criticized the president for adding $5 trillion dollars to the national debt.  He left out that a large portion of that debt increase came from the two unpaid wars, the unfunded prescription drug plan for seniors and the unfunded Bush tax cuts; all initiated by the Republicans under George W. Bush.

Romney said that he will reduce federal income tax rates across the board by 20%.  He said that he will make these reductions revenue neutral by eliminating loopholes.  What he left out was specifically which loopholes he intends to eliminate.  The only loopholes that would have any economic impact are very popular with the American people:  deductions for mortgage interest, charitable deductions, health care costs and state and local taxes.

Romney said that he would reduce the debt and deficit by either eliminating programs or turning them over to the states.  He neglected to tell us which programs he was talking about.  He also neglected to tell us that while moving some programs to the states will reduce the federal budget, the funding has to come from somewhere.  That means state and local taxes and fees will have to go up if we want to keep the programs alive.

Mitt Romney has a problem with “fudging” the truth.  He would probably call it a "difference of opinion." 

We would call it a lie.