It boils down to a simple proposition.
Donald Trump cannot be trusted to tell us the truth about anything. Nothing. Not a single thing he says is to be believed.
Thus, when he says that he cannot release his taxes for public examination because the Internal Revenue Service is “auditing” his returns, I do not believe him.
The president of the United States is a pathological liar. He cannot tell us the truth about any issue, at any level.
I had hoped special counsel Robert Mueller’s investigation into The Russia Thing might reveal the president’s tax returns. It looks as though it won’t. I continue to hope that Congress’s demands that the IRS release will enable them will force the agency’s hand.
Trump keeps telling us there’s nothing to hide. Yet he does hide them from us. He snubs political tradition dating back more than four decades. Every presidential candidate since 1976 has revealed his or her income. Trump refuses.
He is not to be believed. I suspect the audit is a ruse. This individual is deliberately keeping something from the public’s scrutiny.
Why is this important? Let’s set aside the noise about potential Russian influence on Trump’s business dealings.
Presidents are involved in helping establish tax policy for all Americans to follow. Congress enacts the laws, to be sure. Presidents, though, make them law with his signature. Therefore, Americans have every right to know whether the president of the United States is paying his fair share of taxes and doing what he and Congress demand of the rest of us.
That is notwithstanding all the other issues that continue to swirl around the president.
So when this individual tells us he has “no business dealings with Russia,” and that the IRS is “conducting a routine audit,” and that he is worth gazillions of dollars that he earned the hard way, he expects you and me to believe him.
I do not believe a single word that flies out of this guy’s mouth.
Thus, the president needs to produce the goods.
I will keep harping on it until he does.
If the President is required to reveal his tax returns, then the same should be true for ALL elected officials.
Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals.
A recent report showed only 17 of the 535 members of Congress released their tax returns in response to requests by the news organizations. Pelosi, who has repeatedly called out the President, for not disclosing more of his tax returns, was not one of the 17.