OPINION:
By the time you read this, Mitt Romney may have released his tax returns. Let’s hope not. So long as Mr. Romney or any other prospective or elected public official has not made his money illegally, no person’s financial status is any of my business or yours.
There is no law mandating Mr. Romney or anyone else to release his tax returns. What we do know is that Mr. Romney took no salary when he was governor of Massachusetts or when he saved and ran the Olympics. He and his wife probably have donated millions of dollars to charity. Good for them.
It would be fascinating to know if Mr. Romney, if elected president, would accept a salary or not.
The real reason Mr. Romney is being pressured to release his tax returns is because his fellow GOP presidential candidates, his hateful critics and crazy Demoncrats live to wage class warfare against him for being successful. This is so very wrong. We should respect a person’s financial privacy and celebrate any American who succeeds.
If Mr. Romney wants to tell America how much money he is worth, how much he has donated to charities or his church, how much he paid in taxes last year or in previous years, that’s his choice.
There is this toxic, anti-American idea that has surfaced that financial success is something that should be questioned, maligned and condemned and is somehow malicious. This is dangerous and dumb. The Occupy idiots who condemn and blame Wall Street for America’s stagnant economy are simpletons. Let’s hope these morons just keep getting stoned and forget to vote in November.
Americans should want a successful person to be president. We should want someone who understands how the free market truly works. We should reward and praise success, not try to find ways to condemn it or cast aspersions on successful people.
Indeed, we have a right to know certain things about a candidate who wants to be president and the most powerful and influential person in the world. We should want to know his core political ideologies and beliefs, the specifics of how he will lead and shape America domestically and internationally and how he proposes to make America an economic powerhouse that once again encourages success. These are the things that matter most.
It would be refreshing to hear Mr. Romney or any other candidate state: “I made my money legally. How much money I made, have and donate is none of your business. What I can tell you is that if elected president, I will do the job for free. I also will work my hardest to ensure that any barriers that prohibit you from achieving your dreams will be terminated with extreme prejudice on my first day in office.”
Let’s make sure we don’t condemn success but, instead, praise it. Let’s focus on things that matter most, not whether a candidate releases his tax return.
Successful people create jobs and grow the economy, not life-long Fedzillacrats and community organizers. Weld that into your frontal lobe.
Ted Nugent is an American rock ’n’ roll, sporting and political activist icon. He is the author of “Ted, White, and Blue: The Nugent Manifesto” and “God, Guns & Rock ’N’ Roll” (Regnery Publishing).
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