Just One More Time

Democrats are howling that Romney’s failure to release more than the two years of tax returns is “unprecedented” and clear proof that he is hiding something that must be contained in those earlier returns. Harry Reid says that it proves that Romney has not paid any income tax for many years and that the burden is on Romney to prove otherwise.

Tackling the latter charge first; no, the burden is on the person making the charge to prove the validity of the charge. A senior lawmaker of this nation should understand the principle of “innocent until proven guilty.” Harry Reid should be assumed to be a liar until he proves that he is not.

As to the “unprecedented” failure to release tax returns, we only have to look back to the most recent presidential election. John McCain and his wife file taxes separately and he released only two years of his returns and none of his wife’s. She finally released a summary of two years of her returns, but not the entire returns. So, by releasing the entirety of two years of his joint returns with his wife, Romney has actually provided more financial information than John McCain did.

And Mitt Romney knows how many houses he owns; fewer than McCain.