Obama: Romney Should Follow “Tradition” Of Releasing Tax Returns

In an interview with Telemundo airing today, President Obama says that he “absolutely” believes likely Republican nominee Mitt Romney should release his federal tax returns.

Obama continued: “I think that it’s important for any candidate in public office to be as transparent as possible, to let people know who we are, what we stand for, and you know, I think that this is just carrying on a tradition that has existed throughout the modern presidency.”

Romney has been reluctant to release his returns, despite requests from leaders in both parties. The tradition of releasing tax returns began when Romney’s father, George Romney, ran for the presidency.

Romney’s low tax rate, even though he is a multimillionaire, has become an election issue. Obama and congressional Democrats have pushed for the “Buffett Rule,” which would subject the investment income of the super-rich like Romney to be subject to taxation.

On Friday Romney’s campaign announced that they had filed an extension on Romney’s income taxes, and were unclear when the information would be released. Tax returns were released for both President Obama and Vice-President Biden on Friday.

The Obama campaign also released twelve years of taxes for Obama and Biden. The Romney campaign has been urged to release multiple returns and not just the most recent documents, which could be scrubbed for politically volatile entries.

It was recently revealed that the Romneys had investments which are being held in secretive offshore accounts.