Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D., Nev.) repeated for the third time this week the claim that Mitt Romney has not paid taxes in 10 years -- this time on the Senate floor:
REID: I would suggest that when we're talking about trust, that we look no further than the person my friend the Speaker of the House wants to be president. He’s refused to release his tax returns, as we know. If a person coming before this body wanted to be a cabinet officer, he couldn’t be if he did the same refusal Mitt Romney does about tax returns. So the word’s out that he hasn’t paid any taxes for ten years. Let him prove that he has paid taxes, because he hasn’t. We already know from one partial tax return that he gave us, he has money hidden in Bermuda, the Cayman Islands, and a Swiss bank account. Not making that up, that’s in the partial year that he gave us. Mitt Romney makes more money in a single day than the average middle-class family makes in two years–or more.
Reid took heat Tuesday when he first said Romney did not pay taxes for 10 years, adding that Romney's father would be "embarrassed."
"He didn’t pay taxes for 10 years! Now, do I know that that’s true? Well, I’m not certain," Reid told the Huffington Post. "But obviously he can’t release those tax returns. How would it look?"
He reiterated the claim in a call with Nevada reporters Wednesday, according to the Las Vegas Review Journal--but refused to substantiate the charge.
"I don't think the burden should be on me," Reid said. "The burden should be on him. He's the one I've alleged has not paid any taxes. Why didn't he release his tax returns?"
Last month while speaking on the floor, Reid said Romney had "basically paid no taxes in the prior 12 years."