Mitt Romney Releases a Tax Return

Desperate times call for desperate measures.
I have been saying for as long as Mitt Romney has resisted releasing his tax returns that eventually Mitt Romney would release his tax returns into the Friday News Hole. And because Mitt Romney is nothing if not a predictable punchline, today, Mitt Romney "will disclose his 2011 tax...along with a summary going back 20 years."

Per a preview of the numbers made available by the Romney campaign, in 2011, the Romneys' effective tax rate for 2011 was 14.1%.

Romney has previously defended his low tax rate — which, at 14.1% is significantly less than many middle class families pay — by saying he is simply being pragmatic in meeting his legal requirements:

I don't pay more than are legally due and frankly if I had paid more than are legally due I don’t think I’d be qualified to become president. I'd think people would want me to follow the law and pay only what the tax code requires.

If Romney had taken all of the deductions available to him under the tax code, he would have paid closer to a 9 percent tax rate in 2011. In attempting to match up his tax rate with his prior statement, Romney is paying more in taxes — and by his very own standard — disqualifying himself from the presidency.

Clearly, Romney hopes that finally releasing his tax returns (or a single tax return accompanied by a trust-us tax summary, anyway) will be a distraction from the 47% story that's currently burying his presidential hopes beneath a metric fuckton of hellno.

But I feel that is a terrible calculation. His stunningly low tax rate is only going to underline just what sort of comprehensive garbage nightmare he really is, going on about government moochers while he's paying a share that couldn't be called fair by anyone but a dipshit or a liar.

Good luck, Mitt Romney. You're gonna need it.