Most members of Congress keep their tax returns secret

[Midnight Marauder]

Most members of Congress keep their tax returns secret - KansasCity.com

 

By KEVIN G. HALL AND DAVID LIGHTMAN
McClatchy Newspapers

Rep. Nancy Pelosi was emphatic. Mitt Romney's refusal to release more than two years of his personal tax returns, she said, makes him unfit to win confirmation as a member of the president's Cabinet, let alone to hold the high office himself.

Sen. Harry Reid went further: Romney's refusal to make public more of his tax records makes him unfit to be a dogcatcher.

They do not, however, think that standard of transparency should apply to them. The two Democratic leaders of the Senate and the House of Representatives are among hundreds of senators and representatives from both parties who refused to release their tax records.

Just 17 out of the 535 members of Congress released their most recent tax forms or provided some similar documentation of their tax liabilities in response to requests from McClatchy Newspapers over the last three months. Another 19 replied that they wouldn't release the information, and the remainder never responded to the query.

The widespread secrecy in one branch of the government suggests a self-imposed double standard. Yet while American politics has come to expect candidates for the presidency to release their tax returns, the president isn't alone in having a say over the nation's tax laws. Congress also stands to gain or lose by the very tax policies it enacts, and tax records - more than any broad financial disclosure rules now in place - offer the chance to see whether the leaders of the government stand to benefit from their own actions.

"Senior public officials, espec