San Jose Mercury News: Romney should release 10 years of tax returns

In a curt nod to growing public pressure, Mitt Romney on Tuesday finally released his tax return for 2010 and an estimate for 2011.

As if that's enough.

Romney is one of the richest men ever to run for the White House, with an accumulated wealth of more than $250 million. He is campaigning on his assertion to be a "jobs creator" in the private sector — but we've seen nothing to convince us that it's true. Having made the argument, Romney has a special obligation to release records that can help show where his money came from, what causes he supports and how the tax policies he advocates would affect him.

Romney should produce tax returns for at least 10 years, as President Barack Obama and Vice President Joe Biden have done. And he should do it now, before the critical Super Tuesday primaries.

Romney seemed flummoxed when he was asked about his tax returns earlier this month — and no wonder. He has successfully dodged having to reveal them ever since The Boston Globe first asked for them in 1994 when he ran for the U.S. Senate against Ted Kennedy. Romney refused then and continued to refuse every year during his two terms as Massachusetts governor. Either he's got something to hide, or he has an outrageous sense of entitlement.

Personal tax returns are limited in what they tell us, but they are the clearest window we have to see how a candidate's statements sync up with his or her conduct. Here's what voters learned Tuesday: Romney and his wife, Ann, made $21.6 million in 2010. Paying about $3 million, the Romneys had an effective federal income tax rate in 2010 of 13.9 percent, lower than many top wage earners and nearly half the rate paid by Obama and Romney's Republican challenger Newt Gingrich.

American presidents back to the early 20th century have released personal tax returns. Franklin Roosevelt did it. So did Ronald Reagan, George W. Bush and Richard Nixon. Mitt Romney's father, former Michigan Gov. George Romney, turned over 10 years of returns during his 1968 presidential campaign.

Two years aren't going to cut it. If Mitt Romney wants voters to trust him, he's got to come clean.