President Trump Must Release His Tax Returns
President Trump Must Release His Tax Returns
I know, boring boring boring old news. But now that he has had his hind end kicked by the recent off-off election results, it is time to get real. He has managed to cover up massive amounts of crimes and violations of ethical norms because he has violated so many. Nobody could keep track of them. But now that he has his behind kicked, and Mueller is zeroing in on him, it is time for him to deal with his most important violations and ‘fess up.
So, in my view the biggest violation of them all has been his refusal to release his tax returns. Of all the humongously numerous violations of ethical norms and actual laws, this refusal on his part increasingly becomes clear to be the most important. Of all the mistakes the American people made in electing this worst president ever elected, this is the worst mistake of all, electing a person who refused to release their tax returns.
There are two clear reasons why he must release his tax returns, and I call on all media to begin demanding relentlessly and repeatedly, every day, even though the media views this as a dead and boring issue, that President Trump release his tax returns. The way I see it, every day that passes that he does not release his tax returns is another day piling up that he should not only be removed oa as president, but that he should be put in jail for a very long time.
So the first reason is just obvious and immediate. The Republicans in Congress have proposed a major change in the US tax system. It is not obvious that any such change is needed, given that the economy is doing pretty well, but, anyway, we have the biggest proposal for a tax change since 1986. I am not going to get into the details of this proposal or how it is far less worthy than the one in 1986s, which it is, but there is this screaming out loud problem that this proposal appears to have at least five if not more provisions that personally benefit him and his family, possibly to the tune of one than a billion dollars.
However, the American people do not know and cannot know the exact size of this massive benefit he will personally receive until he releases his personal tax returns, which he promised to do and has not done so. This tax proposal should not be passed until he releases his tax returns and lets the American people know just exactly how much he and his family will benefit from this tax proposal, misleadingly labeled a “reform.”
The second reason is one he will resist more, but it is just sitting out there and stinking. It is the matter of just how much money he owes Russians. This may be why he will resist really hard releasing his tax returns, and why he had done so so fervently previously. After all, when one of his returns did get out (from 2005, I think), he jumped on bragging about how he had taken advantage f all loopholes he could to pay as little as he could. He said it showed what a good businessman he was, and lots of people bought this, and it distracted from this more unpleasant issue of his multiple financial relations with various Russians.
It may well be that this latter issue is why he refuses to release his tax returns. But I thin kthat the former matter is why the American people must now demand that he release them. He and his family stand to gain from this proposal in the billions of dollars. Maybe the people and the Congress will decide that this is just fine. But we should know how our utterly corrupt and incompetent president and his family will gain from this current proposal before it is passed.
The American people must demand that President Donald J. Trump release publicly all of his tax returns as have all presidents for the last 40 years, including even Richard Nixon when he was under impeachment proceedings. There is no longer any excuse for him not to do so, and this demand is so supreme it must override all the ongoing minor controversies and infelicities that are constantly being put forward by this worst by a longshot of all American presidents.
Release your tax returns, Donald Trump, or resign as president!
Barkley Rosser
I tend it agree that the only reason he would not release his tax returns is because they would show how much he is indebted to Russians. If true, there is no way in the world he will ever release them.
We need a Ellsberg/Snowden type.
Perhaps a more general “rule” around tax return release is needed. All committee heads? All senators/reps? I am sure there is lots that would be interesting there for both Dems and Reps, but maybe that is the price to pay….
Welcome to AB. First comments go to moderation to weed out spammers and adverting.
Let me play devil’s advocate here for a bit. My contention would be that Trump doesn’t need to release his tax returns. He is under no legal obligation to do so. Just because every president in the last 40 years has done so places him under no obligation. There are plenty of things past presidents have done that breaks with traditions without any objections from the public.
The two reasons provided are not very strong either. The tax proposal is a Republican party proposal, not a personal Trump proposal. He stands to benefit from it, but so does almost every (not just Republican) member of Congress and Senate, most of whom are wealthy. He has as much conflict of interest as any of them.
Now, the Russians. Releasing his personal tax returns will tell us nothing about money owed to the Russians, which is in forms of commercial loans to his numerous business entities. Given that he employs competent accountants (as evidenced by him not being in jail), all his financial interests are likely handled through shell corporations and such in an effort to minimize his taxes. So there will be no Russian connection in his tax returns.
The real reason he likely resists releasing his taxes is the perception of his wealth. He likes to be considered a billionaire and very wealthy. His real wealth, excluding image and branding rights, has been estimated to be as low $150 million. Only by placing high valuation on the Trump brand is he able to claim a billionaire status. This reason for not releasing the taxes is also consistent with his vain personality.
In my opinion (feel free to disagree), the only reason to require Trump to release his taxes would be to cause him embarrassment by revealing the true extent of his wealth. I don’t think this is a “do or resign” moment.
emiichael,
Yes. There are rumors that what will get Trump to fire Mueller will be if and or when Mueller demands to see Trump’s tax returns, which is relevant to Voilsaw’s remark.
Voislaw,
On your first point, yes, GOP members of Congress look to gain also, and Trump is not writing the bill, but it looks like he may gain really large amounts, in the billions of dollars, although exactly how much he (and his family) will gain we can only know if he releases his tax returns, and I think it is the right of the public (if not a matter of law) that they see how much he is going to gain, given that he repeatedly promised tax cuts for everybody, and the various current bills all look to have substantial chunks of the population paying more.
On the matter of why he does not want to release his returns, I am sure that at least part of it is that he does not wish to show his wealth, but you are in no position whatsoever to claim that it is the only reason. You are right that a lot of whatever he has done with the Russians will be covered up, but with some digging much of it might in fact be uncoverable, and especially back in 2009 when he was reported (by his son) to have gotten lots of money from them after his bankruptcy back then, some of it may be a lot more obvious than you think. After all, he was not running for president back then and may not have seen a need to cover up at least some of the transactions.
Why beat around the bush, Barkely? Just demand that Trump abdicate his throne since that’s the actual objective of having him release his tax returns, isn’t it? .
” He has as much conflict of interest as any of them.
Now, the Russians. Releasing his personal tax returns will tell us nothing about money owed to the Russians, which is in forms of commercial loans to his numerous business entities.”
geez
Yeah, that he has a conflict of interest is moot because so do GOP Congressmen. I cannot imagine why anyone thinks that is a defense.
In terms of the Russians and tax returns, you have to be kidding me. There are thousands upon thousands of people that can figure this out. While it is layered with confusion, it is not rocket science.
Rosser
I can’t see why this is “the most important” thing. Appointing people who hate science to head agencies where they can suppress science to protect their financial interests strikes me as the “most important.”
But in general we would still be stuck with a criminal administration and congress if we got rid of Trump. Trump at least is so crude we can see what is going on without a dubious “investigation” that no one would understand especially after the paid liars got through explaining it to us.
Longtooth,
I would like to see him out, but whether releading his tax returns instantly means he is removed depends on what is in the tax returns. And we simply do not know. As pointed out by some it may be that what is really bad in them is very covered and layered and ambiguous and not necessarily illegal, if questionable. May not be impeachable or anything more than embarrassing, and he has gotten away with unacceptable and embarrassing thing after unacceptable and embarrassing thing so far.
Coberly,
Well, he has done lots of bad things, but his bad actions on the environment have arguably amounted to a whole lot of separate thingss. Maybe all together they are worse, but they have been scattered across the landscape.
A lot of what has me upset with this is that Trump has gotten away with so many bad things simply by doing more bad things and distracting from the last bad things with the new bad things. I think especiallyi before the election that this was a super bad and disqualifying thing that simply got dropped by the media and everybody because, well, there just kept on being all these more new bad things, not to mention that one could always go back to whining about Hillary’s emails and whatever. He got off the hook on tihs, which seriously should have disqualified him in my view.
But now we have these tax billls, both of which appear to enrich him and his family big time, and i would think opponents and others ought to get out and demand he release his returns so we can see how much he is getting out of these bills. But we have near silence on this matter. He has totally gotten away with something super outrageous, even if maybe there are one or two other things he has done which are worse.
Rosser
i am not sure that scattered across the landscape makes them any less dangerous.
but i suppose, contrary to what i said above, that all the bad things he does, distracts attention from the really dangerous/evil things he is scattering across the landscape.
though, given what i see in the peanut gallery, it’s the flashy bad things he does that gets their attention while the deeper evil goes unnoticed for now.