Harry Reid, Still a Moron

Let's get this out of the way--Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid is a douchebag.  While he should be wallowing in shame over having any part in a deliberative body that has produced a grand total of zero budgets in the past four years and has become a laughingstock even by Washington standards, he still finds time to turn the stupidity of the "Romney Tax Returns" issue up to 11. 

In case you're not following this issue--in which case I envy you because your brain is spared some severe political derp right now--Mitt Romney has released tax returns for 2011, but not for prior years, and his opponents are now calling on him to release 10 years of previous returns.  Romney has so far refused to do so, leading to speculation about what could be in those prior returns that he doesn't want to release.

Some suggest that the returns would show that he's paying a very low tax rate despite having huge earnings--though unless he did something illegal, which is up to the IRS to determine when he gets his audits and isn't likely anyway because this is why rich people hire high priced tax professionals to go over their returns, then this isn't a story.  Rich people pay professionals to keep their tax burdens as low as legally possible?  Color me shocked!  If anything, this is an argument for completely gutting and reforming the tax system, which is something I have not seen Obama propose.  And if you think little "fixes" like the "Buffet Rule" are going to do any good, then please forgive my laughing at you.

More likely, in my opinion, is the returns indicate charitable donations to liberal causes over the years that would fly in the face of Romney's current stances on a number of issues.  (Maybe a sizable donation to Planned Parenthood?)  It's hard to figure in a vacuum--and for the sake of transparency and dropping this issue, Romney really should go ahead and release the returns.  It may not be legally required for him to do so when running for president, but there are certain things candidates are expected to do for better informing the public--a candidate who refused to give interviews, for example, would be doing the electorate a disservice.

That said, it's understandable for the Obama camp to push for Romney to release more returns--it helps take the Republican off-message and obviously the longer they go unreleased the more people can speculate about what's in them.  But then Harry "I can dress myself!" Reid steps in and goes full retard.

Reid went and made the claim that Romney actually paid no taxes at all for 10 years, saying that he had a source from Romney's old company.  (Not sure why someone involved in Romney's company would know about his personal tax returns, but that's another matter)  When pressed on this audacious claim, Reid doubled down on stupid: “I don't think the burden should be on me,” he said. “The burden should be on him. He's the one I've alleged has not paid any taxes.”

Roll this in your head a bit--"The burden should be on him.  He's the one I've alleged has not paid any taxes."

So you see, because someone alleges something without any evidence, the burden on the accused is to refute it.  Frank Sinatra obviously was the second shooter in the Kennedy assassination!  If he wasn't, then let him prove that! 

Harry Reid has just demonstrated that he is not qualified to sit on a jury, let alone the most powerful deliberative body in the country. 

Harry Reid, you've just earned the "You're Not Helping" award for the month of August.