DEMOCRATIC SENATE MAJORITY LEADER REID AND REPUBLICAN CANDIDATE FOR PRESIDENT ROMNEY GET CONTENTIOUS OVER SOON TO BE GOP STANDARDBEARER's INCOME TAXES............

Governor Mitt Romney's adamant unwillingness to release more than the last two years of his federal income tax returns as he runs for President this year, when multiple year disclosures of up to a dozen years of tax returns have been the standard since 1968, when his own father, then Michigan Governor George Romney, seeking that year's Republican Presidential nomination established the practice by being the first candidate to disclose not one, but twelve years of his income tax returns, has fueled speculation for many months through the primaries and caucuses, until now up to the cusp of the nominating conventions and general election campaign; that Mitt Romney either has something embarrassing to hide in his returns, or that he paid much lower taxes than his income group rate calls for, and perhaps paid no taxes at all in some years.  Current Federal Income Tax Rates in the United States in effect since 2003, range in six levels from the lowest rate of 10% on earned income up to $8,700.00 a year; to the highest rate of 35% on annual income above $388,350.00.  Romney with income of $20 million a year or more, is definitely in the upper catergory for payment of income tax payment.  Yet as shown by Romney's 2010 U.S. Tax Return, on an income of $21.7 million, derived not from wages, but from capital investments and profits.  Mitt Romney paid only 13.9% in federal taxes, amounting to just over $3,016,000.00; far under the $7,595,000.00, owed under the 35% income tax rate his annual income falls under.  Romney's 2011 income is estimated to be $20.9 million, with a projected tax payment of 15.4%, less than half the 35% rate for income above $388,350.00, that is his income tax level.  This has fueled the months long debate and heat over why he refuses to release further tax returns and what most Americans response to knowing would mean for his presidential prospects.  Enter U.S. Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid, who for several days now has been saying Romney may have paid no income taxes for 10 years, which is why he will not release more of his tax information.  Majority Leader Reid has repeatedly asserted this week that an investor in Bain Capital, the financial firm founded and chaired by Romney until 1999, or 2002, has told him that the former Governor paid no income taxes for ten years. Although Reid has not substantiated the claim or identified his source, he continues to stand by the assertion and persists in calling on Romney to release further income tax returns.  This has led Republican Presidential nominee-designate to fire back at Leader Reid on Friday, while campaigning in LasVegas, Nevada; the State Harry Reid has represented for twenty six years in the United States Senate, energetically stating, "Harry Reid really has to put up or shut up".  Romney appearing before reporters after a campaign rally went on, "Let me say catergorically I have paid taxes every year.  And a lot of taxes. So Harry is simply wrong and that is why I am so anxious for him to give us the name of the people who put this forward.  I wouldn't be at all surprised to hear the names are people from the White House or the Obama campaign, or who knows where they are coming from", the Republican candidate told reporters.  Reid also responded on Feriday with a press release addressing Romney's rebuttal stating, "Romney's message to Nevadans is this : he won't release his taxes, but he wants to raise yours"..."It's hard to say which is more insulting to Americans' intelligence, Mitt Romney's tax plan, or his refusal to show the American people what's in his tax returns".  When he was asked why he would not release more years of his tax returns, Romney said he was only doing John McCain did in 2008; "I'm following the precedent of the last presidential candidate of our party, John McCain, putting out two years of income tax returns and putting out a financial disclosure statement, that is required by law of course".  Romney also portrayed these comments in view of Friday's July Jobs and UnEmployment Department of Labor report and the statements of Majority Leader Reid and President Obama, by saying, "I had hoped it would be a debate on the direction of the country but what we are seeing instead is one attack after another that are misleading, false attacks.  The President's ads are saying I am going to raise taxes on the middle class.  That is patently, simply, false.  The President has now raised taxes on the middle class as so determined by the Supreme Court".  The accelerating dispute Reid, Romney, Obama, and the respective Democratic and Republican campaigns, are mounting - guarantees Romney's tax returns will continue to be a bone of contention in the presidential campaign and with the vast majority of American citizens paying 15%, 25%, 28%, 33%, and 35%, rates in income taxes without the benefit of tax breaks, shelters, investments, or exemptions, and most of us earning much less in wages and minimal return on savings or investments, in contrast to the twenty million dollars plus a year man who would be President, whose net worth is reported to be $250 million............Fr.  Troy