Bloomberg op-ed: Harry Reid Has a Glass-House Quandary on Taxes, by Dorothy A. Brown (Emory):
Democrats, including Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, continue to make much of the refusal of Mitt Romney, the Republican presidential nominee, to release more than two years’ worth of tax returns. It is all a red herring. The key to bringing fairness to our tax laws would be for all 535 members of Congress — including Reid — to release their returns.
One thing that congressional tax records can tell us is how many members of the House and Senate benefit from the tax breaks they enact. To take one example, if you own stock outside of your retirement account, then you are eligible for the preferential rate of 15%. But if your income is mostly from wages or from the amounts drawn from your retirement account, then your tax rate can be as high as 35%. While fewer than one in five Americans have incomes eligible for the 15% rate, almost nine in 10 senators do.
This information isn’t easy to obtain. I had to go through every senator’s financial-aid disclosure form found on OpenSecrets.org and check for stock ownership that wasn’t in retirement accounts. It was a painstaking process, which may understate things because assets owned by members of Congress that are held in blind trusts aren’t required to be included in their financial-disclosure forms.
You shouldn’t have to trust my survey. The tax returns should be made public so we can all see how often the legislators actually benefit from the 15% rate. …Democrats and Republicans in Congress do nothing to make our laws fairer
for the average taxpayer. If the lawmakers were required to release
their returns, would they be more likely to take action? The next step
is up to you. The American public must demand not only Romney’s tax
records, but the returns of each senator and representative. When
members of Congress understand that in order to keep their jobs they
must put the financial interests of their constituents above their own,
we will get the type of tax system that we deserve.
