Mitt Romney's potential political problem with blind trusts (VIDEO)
With the release of Republican presidential candidate Mitt Romney's tax returns, most of the attention has focused on the candidate's wealth–and his low tax rate, which fell below 15 percent. But there may be other "red flags" in Romney's 500 pages of returns yet to be exploited by rivals on the campaign trail, and one of them is Romney's use of blind trusts.
Romney, like many wealthy politicians, put much of his fortune into blind trusts as a way of walling off his financial interests–a move designed to eliminate any appearance of conflict of interest. But are blind trusts truly blind? Back in 1994, when Romney ran for Senate against Sen. Ted Kennedy, Romney knocked Kennedy's blind trusts as "a ruse," saying anyone who wanted to could easily determine where their money was going.
Could Romney's own words come back to haunt him as he campaigns in Florida and beyond? On CNN's Erin Burnett OutFront, Wall Street Journal senior economics writer Stephen Moore said Romney's 1996 words–and his 2010 tax form raises questions. "It's a problem."
"A Blind Trust is an age-old ruse, if you will, which is to say you can ALWAYS tell the blind trust what it can and cannot do. You can give a blind trust rules." -- Mitt Romney, 1994
Well, I guess the "blind trusts" aren't so blind. It's nice to know that under the rules Romney proposes, he will personally stand to pay about $5 MILLION less in taxes per year. Maybe it will trickle-down? (Maybe they'll start a company to make wind-proof roof-top dog carriers?)
Really? Think this is a June surprise? The people who think the blind trusts aren't really blind weren't going to vote for Mitt anyway. Only 2% of the country is concerned about blind trusts.
Thomas Sowell: There are no solutions, just trade-offs.
Good to see we can agree on something.
