In 2004, John Kerry released two years of tax returns. If you wanted to see more, it was pretty easy because Sen. Kerry had already released 18 years of tax returns during his time in the Senate. So, in total, voters had 20 years of Kerry tax returns to peruse as they made their decision about whom to support. Despite this, Romney flak Ed Gillespie had this to say:
On Sunday, Romney senior adviser Ed Gillespie promised that Romney would release a total of two years worth of tax returns, following in the footsteps of McCain and Kerry.
“He is going to release them, Candy, we’ve made that clear,” Gillespie said to host Candy Crowley on CNN’s “State of the Union.” “And that’s the standard that Senator McCain, Republican nominee in the last election said was the relevant standard. It’s the standard that Senator John Kerry as the Democratic nominee said was the standard.”
I’d like see the quote of John Kerry saying that two years is the standard. Back in April, Mitt Romney told the same lie about Kerry’s tax returns. Team Kerry is not amused:
Kerry spokesperson Jodi Seth chastised the Romney campaign for the false allegation.
“Months ago, the Romney team began making this false and convoluted excuse — the media investigated it and promptly reminded them that as a presidential candidate John Kerry had released twenty years of tax returns,” Seth said in a statement to TPM. “Still, months later they’re falling back on this same disproven excuse. In fact, if the Romney standard was the same as the Kerry standard for disclosure, the media would have the chance to review twenty years of Romney tax returns. Ed Gillespie should know better.”
Actually, I don’t believe that 20 years is enough. John McCain asked for and received 23 years of tax returns, and that was four years ago. I think we all deserve to know at least as much as John McCain knew when he looked at Romney’s records and picked Palin as his running mate instead.