Democrats on Monday ramped up their attack on Mitt Romney for his overseas financial investments, calling on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to disclose additional documents detailing his financial history.
The additional pressure came on the same day that the Romney campaign announced it and its GOP allies raised $106.1 million in contributions during June, setting a record for this campaign and topping President Obama’s total by $35 million.
Mr. Obama and his allies have tried to portray Mr. Romney as too wealthy to relate to average Americans and have seized on news investigations that last week reported Mr. Romney owns a company in Bermuda, has a retirement account in the Cayman Islands and used to have money in a Swiss bank account.
“The next four years, we’re going to have to undergo comprehensive tax reform,” Obama campaign adviser Robert Gibbs said Monday during an appearance on MSNBC’s “Morning Joe.” “Is somebody who has sheltered their income taxes in Switzerland and the Caymans and Bermuda really somebody who is going to get under the hood and get us to a place of tax fairness?”
The attacks Monday continued a coordinated strategy from Sunday’s political talk shows.
Democrats acknowledge that Mr. Romney has not appeared to violate any federal disclosure laws, but they argue he is offering an incomplete financial picture by refusing to release tax records beyond the 2010 return and 2011 estimated return that he released this year.
Mr. Romney’s campaign insists that he has made all necessary disclosures and paid all required taxes on his investments. Releasing tax returns is not required by law, though most candidates in recent years have done so at some point.
Candidates are required to disclose information including sources and amounts for all income of more than $200, as well as any assets valued at more than $1,000.
“Mitt Romney had a successful career in the private sector, pays every dime of taxes he owes and has given generously to charitable organizations and served numerous causes greater than himself,” Romney spokeswoman Andrea Saul said.
In his estimate of his 2011 taxes, Mr. Romney and his wife, Ann, listed earnings of about $21 million, $10.7 million of which came from capital gains.
President Obama and his wife, Michelle, reported $790,000 in adjusted gross income for 2011, more than half of which came from his book sales. Mr. Obama referred to himself as among “the wealthiest Americans” on Monday in a speech arguing that George W. Bush-era tax cuts should expire on people making more than $250,000.
Other news reports in the past week have highlighted the Obama administration’s own ties to Swiss banks.
Former White House Deputy Chief of Staff for Policy Mona K. Sutphen, who served from 2009 through 2011, now works as a macro-analyst at the Swiss financial giant UBS. Robert Wolf, the chairman and CEO of UBS’ American operations, serves on the president’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board.
The Romney campaign also has accused Democrats of using the offshore-account issue to distract from public discontent with the president, which it says is evidenced by the fundraising totals revealed Monday.
The campaign reported that it and the Republican National Committee raised $106.1 million in June, compared to just $71 million for the Obama campaign and Democratic National Committee that month.
It’s the second month Mr. Romney has topped the president, after outraising him $77 million to $60 million in May. In April, the president outpaced Mr. Romney by about $3.5 million.
While the Republicans hailed the June numbers as a sign of a growing fundraising juggernaut, Democrats urged their supporters to step up their contributions.
“This is no joke,” said Ann Marie Habershaw, chief operating officer for the Obama campaign, on its official website. “If we can’t keep the money race close, it becomes that much harder to win in November.”
• David Hill can be reached at dhill@washingtontimes.com.
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