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We may finally see Trump’s tax returns, and Republicans are panicking

Rogue Valley

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We may finally see Trump’s tax returns, and Republicans are panicking

trump-tax-reform-long-island-financial-advisor-fiduciary-new-york.jpg


2/5/19
Washington is terribly divided these days, but there is at least one thing everyone — the Trump administration, members of Congress from both parties, journalists, cabdrivers — clearly agrees on: If the public ever got to see President Trump’s tax returns, it would be utterly disastrous for him. Though they haven’t done it yet, Democrats are planning to utilize a law allowing the House Ways and Means Committee to obtain any American’s tax returns to demand that the IRS turn them over. Once they have them, the committee can vote to release them to the entire House. Legal experts make clear that the law is not ambiguous and the president can’t simply order the Treasury Department to keep his returns secret. So the administration’s plan seems to be to wage a PR battle while keeping the matter slogging through the courts for as long as possible — say, past November 2020. once Democrats demand the returns it will become an intense controversy playing out on television and the front pages of newspapers. That means that Republican officeholders will be forced to take a position, which they haven’t really had to do before. And they’ll be expected to defend the president’s refusal to allow the public to know where he’s getting money from, whom he owes money to, and how far his financial interests extend.

Trump himself began in 2016 by saying he couldn’t release the returns since he was being audited. This was a lie. The IRS doesn’t prevent you from releasing your returns if you’re being audited, and it’s not as though you have to keep something secret from the IRS, since it already has the returns. Then once he took office, the White House stopped bothering to offer a rationale at all, responding to any question about the returns by saying that Trump won, so forget it. So imagine you're a Republican member of Congress. When this controversy becomes intense, you're going to have to answer two questions. The first is, should Trump release his returns? If they're going to be steadfastly loyal to Trump — which is the most important principle the GOP holds today — the answer they'll have to give is no. The second question is, why not? There is a dodge that Republicans can employ to those questions, and it's one I expect most of them will use: "That's up to the president. I'm more concerned with the vital issues facing the American people." In other words, please don't make me defend Trump. They know who the president is. If they actually believed that Trump's returns would show him to be a man of unimpeachable integrity who had committed no wrongdoing, they'd be perfectly happy to have the public see them. But we all know that's not what the returns will show. So they shouldn’t be allowed to get away with saying it isn’t really their concern. When we have a president as corrupt as this one, it’s all of our concern. And we need to find out exactly what he has been up to.

Trump and the GOP would vastly prefer a permanent deep burial as distant as possible from any sunlight.
 
Trump and the GOP would vastly prefer a permanent deep burial as distant as possible from any sunlight.

As long as they tuck Trump in there with them, I'm on board.

I think we've found a bipartisan solution!
 
We may finally see Trump’s tax returns, and Republicans are panicking




Trump and the GOP would vastly prefer a permanent deep burial as distant as possible from any sunlight.

Just remember, if they can do it to Trump they can do it to you too....and Republicans can do it to Democrats (assuming they ever manage to get elected again). Tax returns could be made a public record just to make sure that nobody is getting over on anyone else. I mean, it would be important to know if your neighbor really deducted their veterinary bills last year while you were honest and didn't, right?
 
Just remember, if they can do it to Trump they can do it to you too....and Republicans can do it to Democrats (assuming they ever manage to get elected again). Tax returns could be made a public record just to make sure that nobody is getting over on anyone else. I mean, it would be important to know if your neighbor really deducted their veterinary bills last year while you were honest and didn't, right?

Every democratic president has made their tax records public knowledge.
 
Every democratic president has made their tax records public knowledge.

And so has every republican president.


Except one.

Not to mention every democratic and republican (and probably independent) nominee who has ran for President over the last 40 years or so.

Luther’s concerns are a bit.... odd.
 
Every democratic president has made their tax records public knowledge.

There is no Constitutional requirement for anyone to release their tax returns. As such, it's a matter of personal privacy and should be respected...unless you don't believe anyone should have personal privacy.
 
Just remember, if they can do it to Trump they can do it to you too....and Republicans can do it to Democrats (assuming they ever manage to get elected again). Tax returns could be made a public record just to make sure that nobody is getting over on anyone else. I mean, it would be important to know if your neighbor really deducted their veterinary bills last year while you were honest and didn't, right?

Wrong
 
There is no Constitutional requirement for anyone to release their tax returns. As such, it's a matter of personal privacy and should be respected...unless you don't believe anyone should have personal privacy.

Everyone should have personal privacy except someone campaigning to be the President of the United States. I want to see his or her tax returns before I vote for them.
 
Just remember, if they can do it to Trump they can do it to you too....and Republicans can do it to Democrats (assuming they ever manage to get elected again). Tax returns could be made a public record just to make sure that nobody is getting over on anyone else. I mean, it would be important to know if your neighbor really deducted their veterinary bills last year while you were honest and didn't, right?

The IRS can audit me anytime. Trump is the first presidential candidate in 48 years to refuse to release his tax returns.

That's presidential candidate, not simply president. We're talking hundreds of individuals?
 
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Must be nice to just violate a person's RIGHT TO PRIVACY whenever one wants. Talk about abuse of power.
 
There is no Constitutional requirement for anyone to release their tax returns. As such, it's a matter of personal privacy and should be respected...unless you don't believe anyone should have personal privacy.

His wealth and his business dealings are not a matter of privacy because of his own choice to run for president.

The fact he has not been transparent to a minimum degree and has not properly divested himself of his business interests SHOULD concern any good, thinking citizen.

But then there is Trump supporters.
 
All Republicans, but particularly Trump, have a lot to fear. They've been obstructionists covering up for Trump for two years. As the saying goes, 'the chickens are coming home to roost' and what goes around comes around. Although Trump was absolutely frantic in the weeks up to the mid-term elections, he pulled every trick out of his bag of tricks to get voters to vote Republican. "A vote for (insert name) is really a vote for me!" Trump never really understood what would happen if Democrats gained a majority in the House. But, he's about to find out.

Jerry Nadler
is Chairman of the House Judiciary Committee. Matt Whitaker is scheduled to appear before this committee on Friday and as insurance he has a subpoena "in an abundance of caution" in his back pocket to ensure Whitaker testifies and doesn't rely on executive privilege to avoid answering questions. If Matt Whitaker doesn't show up, Jerry Nadler will use that subpoena to force him to appear.

Trump's history with Rep. Jerry Nadler of New York dates to the 1980s, when they battled over Manhattan real estate while Nadler was in the New York State Assembly before he was elected to Congress. In his 2000 book, "The America We Deserve," Trump called Nadler "one of the most egregious hacks in contemporary politics." "This guy wanted to put a railroad yard on the same property where I wanted to build a park and create the best middle-income housing in New York," Trump wrote in his book. If Democrats do to try to impeach Trump, Nadler will be one of the most important Democrats in the caucus -- and will likely face the breadth of Trump's backlash.

Elijah Cummings
is the new Chairman of the Oversight and Government Reform Committee. He thinks the president violates the Constitution’s emoluments clause on a daily basis, and sees an abnormal tolerance for corruption and misconduct emanating straight out of the Oval Office. Elijah Cummings is just as troubled by the notion that the Republican Congress had fallen flat on its constitutional duty to check the administration. As Chairman, Elijah Cummings now has subpoena power and the ability to call as many hearings as he wants on whichever topics he chooses.

Maxine Waters
is the Congresswoman that's going to sting the worse since it was Maxine Waters that has been the target of his bigotry for two years referring to her as 'low IQ Maxine'. Maxine Waters is now the Ranking Member of the Financial Services Committee and she has the power power to subpoena, not only Trump’s personal tax returns, but she can subpoena bank executives for investigations.

Richard Neal
is Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee Chairman. It will be Rep. Richard Neal who will have the job of asking for Trump's tax returns. While modern presidential nominees have publicly released their returns, Trump has defied the norm, which Democrats argue must be remedied.Under IRS rules, there are only three people on Capitol Hill who can ask the Treasury Department for the President's tax returns: the chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, the head of the Joint Committee on Taxation and the chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee. Neal is the only Democrat. Richard Neal is building a case to ask for Trump's tax returns.
https://www.bostonherald.com/2019/02/04/tv-ads-call-on-us-rep-neal-to-subpoena-trump-tax-returns/

Senator Adam Schiff is now the Chairman of the House Intelligence Committee. Trump may regret referring to lawyer Adam Schiff as Sleazy Adam Schiff, Liddle' Adam Schiff and most recently "little Adam Schitt". Adam Schiff served in the House Intelligence Committee last year as co-Chair with Devin Nunes. Adam Schiff has accused Republicans of failing to investigate the ties between Trump's team and Russia, and he's promised to restart his committee's Russia investigation in several areas. Among them: Schiff wants to investigate questions about Russian money laundering, to learn who Donald Trump Jr. was calling as he set up the June 2016 Trump Tower meeting and to interview officials the committee has yet to speak to, like Michael Flynn.
 
Everyone should have personal privacy except someone campaigning to be the President of the United States. I want to see his or her tax returns before I vote for them.

No you don't.

You have never read the tax returns of any president you've voter for.
 
hey, nothing to hide, nothing to worry about, right? that's what Republicans told me back when i was a libertarian, anyway.
 
It is both reassuring and refreshing that we get at least half of Congress who finally understands the Constitution and is ready to undertake their oversight responsibilities after the two year abdication of the same.
 
No you don't.

You have never read the tax returns of any president you've voter for.

Ha! Good point. I have never wanted to see the tax returns of any presidential candidate I've ever voted for. Probably because none of them have ever kept them hidden. Funny how that works.
 
I wanna see the tax returns of Nancy Pelosi. Every single year since she started earning a paycheck.
 
There is no Constitutional requirement for anyone to release their tax returns....


No, it's a legal requirement.

As Al Capone found out.



For some reason, you seem as reluctant as the president to see his tax returns released ?
 
Is she running for President?

No, but she's still is a representative in the United States government. Also, her husband has been involved in at least 1 shady deal (See: Visa's stock), I want to see if she may have had her mitts in the jar. That seems only fair, since that's close to what the House Democrat pusbags are filling up their undies about with Trump.

Next, I want to see Mad Magazine Maxine's taxes. She got $12M in bailout funds to her husband's bank. What else has she gotten?
 
It is both reassuring and refreshing that we get at least half of Congress who finally understands the Constitution and is ready to undertake their oversight responsibilities after the two year abdication of the same.

Such oversight does not include access to the president's tax returns.
 
No, it's a legal requirement.

As Al Capone found out.



For some reason, you seem as reluctant as the president to see his tax returns released ?

It's a legal requirement to pay your taxes but definitely not a legal requirement to open them up for public scrutiny or political scrutiny.
 
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