WHAT IS ROMNEY HIDING?

Here’s an educated guess about why Romney won’t release his tax returns going back 10-12 years:

He’s asserting that he had nothing to do with the day-to-day at Bain Capital between 2000 and 2002, despite being its sole shareholder, president and CEO, according to filings with the SEC. (He wants to avoid the taint of corporate “bust-outer” and outsourcer during those years.). Those same SEC filings show him earning “more than $100,000” from Bain during the years in question — probably taxed at a very low rate as “carried interest.” He’s already taken hits from the press and Jon Stewart for earning $100,000 for doing nothing; that’s survivable.

What his tax returns for those years (and maybe more recently as well) would probably show, and what he’s desperate to conceal, is that he probably earned millions, not just $100,000, which will call into question “reasonable compensation” for tax purposes if he did nothing to earn it, or sully his claim that he was not actively managing the company (else why would he legitimately earn millions?). Ergo, either he’s a tax cheat or a ‘bust-outing’ outsourcing tooth-and-claw capitalist.

Alternatively, having claimed to have dutifully tithed 10% of his income to his church, Romney might be reluctant to reveal to his fellow Mormons that he failed to meet that standard, if indeed such is the case.

I suspect the Obama campaign has a little birdie at the IRS informing them of what Romney’s returns for 2000-2002 contain; and rather than appear to use the IRS for political reasons (like Nixon and Johnson), by having the IRS audit the returns, they are holding Romney’s feet to the fire about disclosing them — either way the Obama campaign gains, either by raising the suspicion that he has something to hide, or exposing him as a tax cheat or corporate corsair.

Then there’s the question of how Romney’s IRA grew to over $100 million when the most he could legally contribute to it was $6,000 a year.

What boggles the mind, however, is that the man who aspires to lead the country defends having paid taxes at a rate of "at least 13%" of his income in an economy in which government spending accounts for about 35% of Gross Domestic Product. Go figure.

Curiouser and couriouser.