Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) called on GOP presidential candidate Mitt Romney to release several years of tax returns, but said he doubted Romney would comply because they would likely show he pays a very low tax rate.
"George Romney set an example his son should follow," Reid said on the Senate floor, referring to Romney's father, who set a precedent in 1968 by releasing multiple years of tax records. Mitt Romney has so far released just two years of tax records.
"We'd like to know what's in those tax returns that he refused to show the American public. Did he pay any taxes?" Reid asked.
Reid also lamented that Republicans are refusing to accept President Obama's proposal to maintain current tax levels for people earning $250,000 a year or less, but let rates increase for people above that income level. He said the GOP is claiming that the rich can't contribute any more, and again turned to Romney as an example of someone who can and should contribute more.
"These same Republicans say multimillionaires like Mitt Romney need lower taxes, even lower than the only tax return we've been able to see from Gov. Romney, which showed his rate at 16 percent," Reid said. "We don't know what's in the other tax returns that he should make public, the same tax returns that were made public by his father.
"I'd suggest to everyone that Mitt Romney doesn't need another tax break," he continued. "In fact, he's got so much money that he doesn't know where it's all located. Switzerland? The Cayman Islands? Bermuda? No wonder he doesn't want Americans to see his tax returns."
Reid said that by rejecting Obama's proposal, Republicans are allowing the wealthy to enjoy historically low tax rates. And he blamed this situation on the tax cuts the Bush administration first approved, although the Obama administration later agreed to maintain those same levels.
"The rich are getting richer, and the poor is being squeezed, the middle class is being squeezed, but the rich are doing really well," Reid said.
"Hundreds of billions of dollars in tax cuts, some say more than a trillion dollars, have been handed out disproportionately to the rich by the previous administration," he added. "This has fueled skyrocketing deficits and a growing national debt."
