Ronald Reagan: Welfare Queen of Montana (or: Tax Tips for Mitt Romney)

[marmar]

from Rolling Stone:



Ronald Reagan: Welfare Queen of Montana (or: Tax Tips for Mitt Romney)
POSTED: February 7, 12:55 PM ET | By Rick Perlstein


Here is one thing we know about Mitt Romney: He loves Ronald Reagan (or at least he does now). Here is another: He also loves the Cayman Islands. It's something he kind of shares with the Gipper: creativity in sheltering his fortune from the prying eyes of tax collectors. But here's something he does not share with Ronald Reagan at all: skill at waving his hands and making the story go away. Not many people remember this now, but when Reagan was governor of California in the early 1970s, it came out that he'd paid no state income taxes – none – one year, despite being a wealthy man. And yet, he went on to run – twice – for the highest office in the land, without the revelation making any sort of dent at all. Learn from the master, Mitt.

It happened like this. One Friday in late April of 1971, a student-operated radio station at Sacramento State College reported that Reagan's 1970 California tax return claimed the governor owed precisely zero dollars and zero cents.

Brazen stuff. For one thing, Gov. Reagan pulled his tax dodge during an election year, when he was running for a second term. For another, his big crusade after reelection was fighting the Democratic legislature’s attempts to institute tax withholding on salaries to make up for a budget shortfall. He wanted people should know exactly what they were paying; "taxes should hurt," was his slogan.

The following week, the story was the talk of the State Capitol. At Reagan's weekly press conference, after he announced the state was running so short of cash that by fall it would be forced, for the first time since the Great Depression, to rely on outside borrowing to pay the bills – because, of course, Democrats were "playing fast and loose with the fiscal integrity of this state for purely partisan advantage" – a newsman asked him if it was true that he himself had contributed nothing to state coffers the previous year. Obviously taken aback, he responded slowly: "You know something? I don't actually know whether I did or not. I'd have to check up .... I have a fellow making it our for me — a lawyer makes it out." He added, "I know in the federal the last couple of years I got a rebate back." ................(more)

The complete piece is at: http://www.rollingstone.com/politics/blogs/national-affairs/ronald-reagan-welfare-queen-of-montana-or-tax-tips-for-mitt-romney-20120207#ixzz1mDp645RF