Yesterday, the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel reported that former Bush administration cabinet secretary and Washington D.C. lobbyist Tommy Thompson refused to release his state and federal tax returns from the last 10 years and that he wouldn’t until after the November election.
The story also reported that “Thompson said in January that his net worth was roughly $13 million. And he said he earned more than $5 million in income since the beginning of 2010.” After serving in the Bush administration, Thompson became a million-dollar-a-year consultant, joining one of Washington’s most influential law firms as they lobby on behalf of drug companies, insurance companies and the oil industry.
While Thompson has cashed in on his D.C. insider connections, sitting on a dozen corporate boards and more than tripling his net worth, he refuses to detail it by releasing 10 years of state and federal tax returns.
“Secretary Thompson has been cashing in on his D.C. insider connections and playing the Washington game that allows special interests to play by their own set of rules. Now, Wisconsin voters deserve to know what he is hiding,” said Democratic Party of Wisconsin Chair Mike Tate. “Thompson supports tax cuts for corporations and the wealthy, but he refuses to let Wisconsin voters know just how much he would benefit from his own tax proposals.”
“Yesterday, U.S. Senate candidate Tammy Baldwin released 10 years of state and federal tax returns and challenged all of the Republican Senate primary hopefuls to follow her lead and do the same. In Congress, Baldwin has a record of fighting for tax breaks for the middle class and small businesses to grow our economy and create jobs. She is also the lead sponsor of legislation that requires people with incomes over a million dollars a year to pay their fair share in taxes.
“Thompson has been so eager to cash in on his influence in Washington that he can’t even keep track of all the special interests he works for. When asked how many boards and companies he was involved with in February 2010, Thompson, after a six second struggle, said “that’s sort of a hard thing for me to say…there’s more than a dozen.””
Read the Milwaukee Journal Sentinel story here.
