April 4, 2019: Does Donald Trump Pay Taxes to Support the Military - or Even Build His Own Great Wall?

 

4/4/19: Trump decides to spout all kinds of nonsense to begin the month. For example, he threatens to shut the border with Mexico. That idea is so dumb GOP lawmakers force him to recant within 24-hours (see: 4/3/19). Next, he insists wind turbines cause cancer, a claim so absurd the White House decides to address it by not addressing it. He complains about an immigration decision issued by “Judge Flores,” a judge who doesn’t exist. 

In fact, in one talk with reporters, the president butchers the word “origins,” stating it as “oranges.” 

Then, because he’s incapable of admitting even ordinary slips of the tongue, White House aides are forced to spend their time (paid for by the American taxpayer) denying Trump messed up the word at all. 

He could have said “origami,” or “orgasm,” or “original fried chicken.” He’d have insisted he got the word “origins” right.

 

* 

IN OTHER NEWS, Republicans reacted Thursday to news Democrats would subpoena the president’s tax returns. 

“The Democrat agenda is still strictly focused on harassing the president,” House Minority Whip Steve Scalise whined. 

House Minority Leader Kevin McCarthy labeled the request “a waste of time.” He warned that Democrats wanted to “use the power of government, the fear that every American has the government has become so strong they go after you because they don’t politically agree with you. It’s wrong.” 

There are a few flaws in his complaint – including the fact McCarthy once told a gathering of Republicans that he thought Trump was one of two people the Russians paid. Nor does “every American” need to worry. Democrats are not subpoenaing “every American.” They want to see President Trump’s returns. 

If we have any brains left after listening to Trump and his enablers, we might remember the time Candidate Trump said he’d be happy to release his taxes – as soon as an audit process ended. 

 

We have a right to know if our leaders pay their share. 

We know that almost every other major party presidential candidate in the last forty years has released his or her taxes. Gerald Ford released nothing more than a tax summary in 1976. He was the sole exception. Ronald Reagan released a single year of returns in 1980 and Mitch Romney went with two in 2012. By comparison, Bob Dole gave us thirty years’ worth of returns. Hillary Clinton, in 2016, released fifteen years, covering from 2001 to 2015. 

Let’s be blunt. If you don’t dare show your taxes, maybe you shouldn’t run for the highest office. The American people have a right to know if their leaders are paying their share to keep the parks open, inspect the foods we eat, test the drugs we take and – yes – construct the Great Wall of Trump. 

We don’t want them stashing hundreds of millions, or billions, in offshore bank accounts, like several members of the Trump cabinet.

 

 

POSTSCRIPT: In the case of Secretary of Commerce Wilbur Ross it can be damnably hard to figure where he hides all his hundreds of millions. As Marketplace explains, “Each of the 664 dots [above] represents a business, holding company, offshore account, partnership or investment fund” in the Ross financial empire. 

See the dot below? 

. 

That’s what the “financial empire” of most American taxpayers who pay their shares looks like.