Workers Voice, the super PAC of the AFL-CIO, is supporting Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid in the fight over Mitt Romney's tax returns.
The super PAC announced plans on Monday to ramp up efforts calling on the presumptive Republican presidential nominee to release more tax returns. The largest union-affiliated super PAC, Workers Voice launched a petition where anyone can sign and back up the recent charge led by Reid. The group also plans to add the tax return issue to its protests outside of Romney campaign events.
Workers Voice is also doing an extra push to support Reid in his home state of Nevada. Las Vegas AFL-CIO executive secretary-treasurer Danny Thompson released the following statement Monday to coincide with Reid's upcoming visit to the Silver State for the Clean Energy Summit:
"Romney's secretive behavior in hiding his tax returns raises questions about if he actually did pay any taxes or if he had enough corporate loopholes to avoid paying his fair share. Our members pay their fair share every day -- Romney could learn what it really means to support your country from their leadership example. If Romney paid taxes, then let's see it. If he didn't, then he doesn't meet the leadership qualities required by our members to win Nevada in November."
Last week, Reid ignited a firestorm when he told The Huffington Post that Romney didn't pay taxes for a period of 10 years. Since then the Senate Majority Leader has stood by his claims, which he says are built on information from an anonymous Bain Capital investor. Romney responded by denying the allegations and telling Reid to "put up or shut up."
But Romney's opponents refuse to let the issue fade into the background. Robert Gibbs, campaign adviser to President Barack Obama, poked fun at the former Massachusetts governor Sunday, saying Romney could resolve the entire tax return ordeal by simply heading to Kinko’s.
"We could put this to rest tomorrow," Gibbs said on CNN’s "State of the Union." "Mitt Romney can go to Kinko's, photocopy his tax returns. There are several hundred pages. He could hand them out to people like CNN and to reporters all over the country, and we wouldn't talk about this tomorrow. We wouldn't say, 'Is he paying taxes? What's he paying?' The whole world would know what loopholes he's taking advantage of."
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