Pelosi: I'll release my tax returns when I run for president

[Dave]

Got to love politicians.. while begging to see more of Romney's tax returns they don't seem so willing to show off theirs. Pelosi's comment is simply a dodge.. she has no interest in allowing anyone to see what kind of corrupt accounting practices she enjoys. She's as bad as Debbie Waserman-Shultz who after appearing on a Sunday news show and asking what Romney was hiding in his offshore accounts and such, it was revealed that she was doing the exact same thing... I honestly don't know how she got her current position, surely wasn't for her intelligence.

House Minority Leader Nancy Pelosi (D-Calif.) pushed back hard Thursday against the notion that congressional leaders should release their tax returns, saying the standard applies only to presidential candidates.

“When I run for president of the United States, you can hold me to that standard,” Pelosi told reporters in the Capitol.

“The disclosure that we have is full and complete,” she added, noting that she's met all of the financial disclosure obligations required of Congress.

Democratic leaders – and a number of Republicans – have urged Mitt Romney, the wealthy GOP presidential hopeful, to release his tax returns, to no avail. Yet a McClatchy report published Thursday found that only a tiny percentage of congressional lawmakers were willing to apply the same standard to themselves.

Pelosi and Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D-Nev.) were among the Democrats who declined to release their returns.

Pelosi on Thursday defended that position, and chastised the media for focusing on the tax-return issue instead of other issues like jobs and the looming expiration of the Bush-era tax rates.

“Let's not be silly,” she said. “This person [Romney] is running for president of the United States. His party is calling on him to release his returns. It's up to him to take the consequences of not doing it, or doing it, but not to deflect [the issue] to say, 'Well, if he has to do it, why doesn't everybody else have to do it?' Because everybody else isn't running for president of the United States, and that's the last thing I'm going to say about it.”

Pelosi argued that it's Republicans – not Democrats – who have been calling most loudly for Romney to disclose his tax returns. Yet just a day earlier, Rep. Sandy Levin (Mich.), senior Democrat on the House Ways and Means Committee, introduced legislation to require presidential candidates to release 10 years worth of tax returns.

“The stunning lack of transparency from someone in pursuit of the highest office in the country highlights the need to change the law to require fuller disclosure,” Levin said in a statement introducing the bill.

“For decades, presidential candidates have voluntarily provided a thorough accounting of their tax returns and finances, as they should,” he added. “But we clearly cannot continue to rely solely on the willingness of a candidate to disclose fully what the public has a right to know about the candidate’s financial record.”

President Obama’s campaign has hammered Romney over the issue, insisting he should release more of his tax forms and questioning whether he has something to hide. Obama has also attacked Romney’s work at the private equity firm Bain Capital, which Romney founded. Both lines of attack are being used by Obama to paint Romney as a politician out of touch with middle class workers.

Some Republicans have argued Romney, whose wealth is said to approach a quarter of a billion dollars, is only hurting his campaign with his refusal to release more returns.

Yet Romney so far has said he will only release his forms for 2010 and 2011. He argued this week that offering more would just give Obama’s campaign more to “distort.”

Romney's wife told ABC News this week that no more documents are forthcoming.

"We've given all that people need to know and understand about our financial situation and about how we live our life," Ann Romney said in an interview that aired Thursday.

Sen. John McCain (R-Ariz.) released only two years of his tax returns in 2008, but other candidates for president have released many more, including Romney’s own father.

George Romney volunteered 12 years of tax returns when he ran for president more than four decades ago.

Pelosi on Thursday said the issue is one for Republicans to decide.

“It's a relationship between the person running for president and the American people,” she said.

“If you release them, you tell a story. If you don't release them, you leave it up to the imagination of anybody who wants to talk about it … So it's a decision the candidate has to make.

“The longer he takes to release them,” she added, “doesn't make me sad.”

This story was updated at 12:43 p.m.

[Guidothesemipsuedocaptitalistpig]

Her comments kind of reminds me of her earlier comment we have to pass the bill to see whats in it. WE now would have to elect the lefty before we see where she hides her fortune.  I think someone should start a campaign" if your not flashing your own returns around you public servant you don't ask that of someone else".

And a tax return is the only thing Id care to be flashed by Mrs Pelosi.

[Dave]

You mean you wouldn't want to see her.....errrr..... never mind... I don't know that if after all the cosmetic surgery she has had that anything on her is worth seeing :-P

[XLFD]

As I see it, Presidential hopefuls (who aren't legislators or the president already) shouldn't need to reveal their private tax returns, however, I do believe that Congresspeople should be required to do so.  The legislature decides where the money goes and doesn't go, and the legislators should have transparency in where their money is coming from, and how much is there.  But if we keep electing the same corrupted people, this will never be legislated.

[Dave]

I don't have an issue with a presidential nominee revealing their most recent tax returns but I don't believe them to need to do anymore then that. When running for office you are being vetted by all the people and having as much info available as possible. Of course it would be nice in this case if the current president would let us see his college transcripts so we can see what kind of student he really was... basically to see if he is actually as smart as we are lead to believe.

[XLFD]

Which is always a good counterstrike for Romney.  Obama's past has been kept so private, it's hypocritical for them to say Romney needs to go above and beyond in disclosure of his private documents. 

I'm about as pro-disclosure as it gets for public servants, but I also advocate anti-disclosure for private info from non-public servants.  It's how I stay balanced.

[Dave]

Your balanced? haha