We heard about Trump's taxes and now a Republican is actually doing something about it

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Texas Rep. Kevin Brady, this week called for an investigation into the source who released President Trump’s tax return information to The New York Times over the weekend, calling it “illegal” and for “political reasons.”

Brady, R-Texas, slammed what his office called a potentially criminal leak of the president’s private tax information, which The New York Times published over the weekend, saying the president paid no federal income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years.

https://www.foxnews.com/politics/kevin-brady-trump-tax-release

Yes, that's right. The people are the government and have to intelligently vote for candidates but they have no authority to know what they need to know about the candidates to assess their honesty, fiscal responsibility, financial competence, or even who they may owe favors to.

Imagine this:
You are in elementary school. You took a math quiz. You saw someone cheating and so you told the teacher, i.e. the authority who can hold the student responsible. One of the other students, probably a conservative...but not all conservatives are like that, starts screaming "tattle tale!!" at you. He then goes to the Principal of the school to demand that you be held accountable for being a tattle-tale.

Let's be serious, though, the Republican Party is slightly more complicated than this. They also try to trick the electorate into voting for them and so they have to engage in this sort of charade where Trump is just an average Joe the Plumber who engages in locker room banter. It can't get out that his policies and whole life are designed to fuck over the little guy.

Kevin Brady is in on the scheme to trick the working class and directly benefits from it by his job as a Republican representative. Now he wants a bunch of other thugs in suits to try to keep the truth from coming out to people who deserve to know it.

 

[ideologyhunter]

The GOP has approved of all of Trump's criminality and disloyalty, with one or two peeps of disapproval from a few reps & senators, and one notable stand of honor (Mitt's.) Republicans are fully invested in establishing minority rule. If their leader is popular with the base, which has been gaslit into a state of unreality from a quarter century of raving mad talk radio and the stars of Fox prime time, then he's golden and he's always to be sustained. The fact that they loved him after his grotesque abandonment of America at Helsinki ("...I must tell you, President Putin made a strong denial that his country has tried to..." etc.) tells you what this party is all about. A quarter million dead from covid by election day? Can't be helped. Trump says the election will be rigged? Fair comment. Pardoning war criminals...tear gassing peaceful demonstrators...caging children...holding mass rallies during a pandemic...who would've believed an open society could witness all these things? Trump is one messy avatar of psychological projection. Since he's harped on and on about the 'failed coup' that tried to take him down, one has to consider the coup he's planning for November if he can't change the percentages...

 

[Trausti]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

 

[Elixir]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Thanks, Sherlock - I do believe you have discovered something that needs to change if the TCF can be deposed.

 

[Jayjay]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

But not every citizen has a personal cadre of sycophants in the congress to start investigations and witch hunts should their privacy be violated.

 

[Trausti]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

But not every citizen has a personal cadre of sycophants in the congress to start investigations and witch hunts should their privacy be violated.

Great. So we’re now agreed that the rule of law is only for people we like. If Jayjay doesn’t like you, too bad.

 

[ideologyhunter]

One of the counts that Michael Cohen pled guilty to was making an excessive campaign contribution at the request of a candidate for 'the principal purpose of influencing the election.' The means of this contribution, of course, was Trump's personal check for $130 grand to Stormy. So the question is, should Trump and Cohen be in the same cell block?

 

[Jayjay]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

But not every citizen has a personal cadre of sycophants in the congress to start investigations and witch hunts should their privacy be violated.

Great. So we’re now agreed that the rule of law is only for people we like. If Jayjay doesn’t like you, too bad.

So you think that every person whose tax records leak to the press, should be entitled to a congressional investigation at taxpayer expense? Keeping in mind that at the moment, it's not even certain that a crime has been committed.

 

[Shadowy Man]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

That must be why Trump started an investigation into who leaked Clinton’s emails, right? He certainly wouldn’t have praised the leak or said he loves the organization that leaked it because he is a champion for rule of law.

 

[Keith&Co.]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Thanks, Sherlock - I do believe you have discovered something that needs to change if the TCF can be deposed.

Not sure if he's right, though.
When my wife worked for the credit union, employee financial records were regularly reviewed by the CU. Because financially dependent people handling other people's finances is contra-indicated.

When the two of us were in the military, our security clearances required a review of our financial status. The highr the vlearance, the greater and more sweeping the scrutiny. Hers was Secret, mine was well above Top Secret. Because $-desperate people handling national security was contra-indicated.
We both work for a military contractor right now, with Secret clearances. Our financials, etc.
Trump's family failed their security clearance background investigations. Trump and the Untrustworthy are handling national security. National policy. Troop deployment. Hurricane prep and recovery. Budgets. Hoax identification and ventilator distribution.

Why would we not frankly EXPECT that their employers be briefed on anything that might impact our ability to trust them with the lives of every single American citizen? Not to mention every life on the whole fucking planet?

 

[Don2 (Don1 Revised)]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Yeah, that's the ticket. Trump is a trustworthy guy and he's just an average Joe citizen, not the actual President. An attack on Trump's right to hide his tax returns is an attack on all average Joes. You go girl!

But, come on, man. You are not even arguing the whole conservative talking point. You've got only half of it. So far you're just, "tattle tale!!" Can't you even use the rest of the argument? Come on, tell us all how the elite conservative ownership class does everything with the little guy in mind...you know, like deregulating lead pipes, deregulating cancer sticks, deregulating coal mines and removing worker protections and minimum wages...all so the wealth can trickle down on poor people.

It has nothing to do with that it also benefits the ownership class like Dear Leader. That's just a coincidence!

 

[Patooka]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Trump would disagree with you, considering how much he loves Cambridge Analytica. Maybe you should listen to your hero.

Personally, I believe Trump is reaping what he sows. Fuck him.

 

[Worldtraveller]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Thanks, Sherlock - I do believe you have discovered something that needs to change if the TCF can be deposed.

Actually, trausti isn't even correct about that. If you want or have a job with a security clearance, your employer/government can require disclosure of tax documents as part of the background investigation. Seems like a reasonable thing to ask anyone to do when they are the level of any federal office.

 

[lpetrich]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

I love it when right-wingers act like card-carrying members of the ACLU. They normally consider civil liberties criminal-coddling, but when they are the ones charged with crimes, they become born-again civil libertarians.

 

[Shadowy Man]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Thanks, Sherlock - I do believe you have discovered something that needs to change if the TCF can be deposed.

Actually, trausti isn't even correct about that. If you want or have a job with a security clearance, your employer/government can require disclosure of tax documents as part of the background investigation. Seems like a reasonable thing to ask anyone to do when they are the level of any federal office.

But I assume an employee can choose not to undergo the background investigation, obviously with the result of not obtaining a clearance.

The person seeking the clearance gives consent to have their tax records seen. That’s different than what happened here.

 

[Worldtraveller]

Actually, trausti isn't even correct about that. If you want or have a job with a security clearance, your employer/government can require disclosure of tax documents as part of the background investigation. Seems like a reasonable thing to ask anyone to do when they are the level of any federal office.

But I assume an employee can choose not to undergo the background investigation, obviously with the result of not obtaining a clearance.

The person seeking the clearance gives consent to have their tax records seen. That’s different than what happened here.

Just like a person can choose not to run for POTUS. It should really come with the job now.

 

[Shadowy Man]

Actually, trausti isn't even correct about that. If you want or have a job with a security clearance, your employer/government can require disclosure of tax documents as part of the background investigation. Seems like a reasonable thing to ask anyone to do when they are the level of any federal office.

But I assume an employee can choose not to undergo the background investigation, obviously with the result of not obtaining a clearance.

The person seeking the clearance gives consent to have their tax records seen. That’s different than what happened here.

Just like a person can choose not to run for POTUS. It should really come with the job now.

I agree. But the question is whether Congress would ever pass a law for requirements on the eligibility for the Presidency and whether it would be Constitutional even if they could.

 

[Rhea]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Unless COngress asks for them. Then they SHALL be provided.

All about the Rule of Law, right? You and Trump both agree they should have been given to Congress long ago, right?

 

[Keith&Co.]

Just like a person can choose not to run for POTUS. It should really come with the job now.

I agree. But the question is whether Congress would ever pass a law for requirements on the eligibility for the Presidency and whether it would be Constitutional even if they could.

One of the reasons they wrote the Constitution was to "provide for the common defense." I learned that on Schoolhouse Rock.
Information is classified based on the threat it poses for national security if the wrong people get it.
NOT handing classified information to compromised people promotes the common defense.
And to do that, we kinda need to know who is compromised. Who is the Wrong People, or beholden to the Wrong People.

Rich or poor might tell us how well they can understand the problems faced by the average voter

But knowing they're $400,000,000 in debt to someone is kinda within the jurisdiction.

 

[southernhybrid]

FFS. Every citizen had a right to confidentiality in their tax records. Every. Citizen. So much for rule of law.

Did you know that every single fucking president has revealed his tax returns since Nixon's tax returns revealed that he only paid about $750 in taxes on an income around 200K? People were very outraged that he paid so little in taxes, so it was considered essential that all presidential candidates reveal their tax returns after Nixon. While I never supported Nixon, in retrospect, tricky Dick's crimes were insignificant compared to Trump's. And, Nixon even did a few good things for the country, like starting the EPS. Nixon even proposed some type of UHC but it never got anywhere in Congress.

No, it's not a law, but it's become expected. Trump is the first asshole who refused to do it. Why do you think that is? It's very obvious to anyone with an open mind and a working brain that many of the things revealed about Trump's tax returns look very suspicious. Perhaps if the IRS wasn't so underfunded, he would have been charged with tax fraud by now. It's sickening how Trump has gotten away with the things he's done. Look at all the lies he's told about his net worth, his business dealings, his fake university etc. etc Not only is he corrupt, he's incompetent. We have a criminal in the WH but some of his supporters will defend him no matter what he does. It's disgusting that so many people can be proud members of the Trump cult!