How infuriating must it be for Dems to have Trump as an enemy? Every time they think they’ve got him down for the count for good, he’s up again and grinning triumphantly at him.
He’s the political answer to those old-school inflatable punching dummies that come right back to a standing position every time you hit it.
It was bad enough for them that the J6 committee come up empty after 2 years of putting his life under the microscope, demanding access to aspects of his life for which even a criminal investigation could never have gotten a lawful warrant.
Then the House Oversight committee took its shot. They gained access to Trump’s taxes and — hoping to weaponize them in his 2024 presidential run, they made them public on the very last day before they were dissolved at the end of the 2022 session.
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The tax forms provide insights into the state of Trump’s finances from 2015 to 2020 as he mounts a third bid for president in 2024. The redactions hide personal sensitive information such as Social Security and bank account numbers.
The committee voted 24 to 16 along party lines to release Trump’s tax returns last week. Democrats argued that transparency and the rule of law were at stake, while Republicans countered that the release would set a dangerous precedent with regard to the loss of privacy protections.
…”The Democrats should have never done it, the Supreme Court should have never approved it, and it’s going to lead to horrible things for so many people. The great USA divide will now grow far worse,” Trump said in a statement after his tax information was made public.
“The Radical Left Democrats have weaponized everything, but remember, that is a dangerous two-way street! The ‘Trump’ tax returns once again show how proudly successful I have been and how I have been able to use depreciation and various other tax deductions as an incentive for creating thousands of jobs and magnificent structures and enterprises,” he added. — FoxNews
Why did they release it? Did they find any nefarious about Donald Trump failing to file his taxes or acting corruptly? Of course not. After all, this is the president who repeatedly donated the entirety of his presidential paychecks to charitable causes.
Because Trump’s critics came up empty of any allegations of wrongdoing, they went to plan b — attack Trump’s reputation of being a fabulously wealthy businessman, and say he didn’t make as much money as he says he does. Pair that with the ‘rich don’t pay their fair share’ chorus and that’s a recipe for attacking his taxes the way Democrats lied about Romney — with Harry Reid gloating that the lies he told about Romney’s taxes didn’t matter so long as they successfully kept him from being elected.
Here are a couple of examples, emphasis added:
The couple paid little in federal taxes during Trump’s presidency and appeared to owe none in 2020 after reporting large deductions and expenses that resulted in a net loss of $15 million. Trump then claimed a $5 million refund, according to the return. — NBC
Why is that reporting dishonest? Because the casual reader will think that Trump made poor business decisions that cost him money. In reality, that leaves out the fact that Trump makes
a lot of his money through real estate. One of the reasons people find real estate investing appealing is the calculation of depreciaiton.
Accountants factor in the fact that certain investment classes have upkeep costs and require repairs, special maintenance, or remodeling over time. Savvy investors are just as interested in the depreciation numbers associated with real estate as they are with cash flow, because both help their bottom line.
‘Losing’ money, so long as it’s on paper is a good thing for businessmen. It means an equivalent amount of income is shielded from the hungry eyes of the tax man.
Let’s go back to that exchange Trump had with Hillary Clinton during the debate. ‘That makes me smart.
During the first pres debate, in ‘16, Hillary Clinton said this of Trump’s unreleased tax returns:
“…he’s not all that enthusiastic about having the rest of our country see what the real reasons are…it must be something really important—even terrible he’s trying to hide.” pic.twitter.com/X2MBLMWWVh
— BG (@TheBGates) September 28, 2020
Remember what we just said about the Oversight Committee’s plan to weaponize the taxes in an attempt to discredit Trump even if they found nothing wrong? It’s exactly the same tactic Hillary trotted out in the debate. She gave the whole game away right here, with her itemized speculation and innuendo:
So you’ve got to ask yourself, why won’t he release his tax returns? And I think there may be a couple of reasons. First, maybe he’s not as rich as he says he is. Second, maybe he’s not as charitable as he claims to be.
CLINTON: Third, we don’t know all of his business dealings, but we have been told through investigative reporting that he owes about $650 million to Wall Street and foreign banks. Or maybe he doesn’t want the American people, all of you watching tonight, to know that he’s paid nothing in federal taxes, because the only years that anybody’s ever seen were a couple of years when he had to turn them over to state authorities when he was trying to get a casino license, and they showed he didn’t pay any federal income tax.
TRUMP: That makes me smart. –WaPo first debate transcript, 2016
In amother of their debates, Trump explained that Hillary herself was part of the reason why he was able to use these write-offs that she claimed to abhor… because she would never take away tax provisions her friends and political benefactors also benefited from.
She is – she was a United States senator. She complains that Donald Trump took advantage of the tax code. Well, why didn’t you change it, why didn’t you change it when you were a senator? The reason you didn’t is that all your friends take the same advantage that I do. And they do, you have provisions in the tax code, that frankly, we could change. But you wouldn’t change it because all of these people gave you the money so you can take negative ads on Donald Trump. But, and I say that about a lot of things. I heard Hillary complaining about so many different things over the years, I wish we would have done this. But she’s been there for 30 years, she’s been doing this stuff, she never changed, and she never will change.
… We are getting rid of regulations, which goes hand in hand with the, lowering the taxes. But we’re bringing the tax rate down from 35% to 15%. We are cutting taxes for the middle class and I will tell you, we are cutting them big league for the middle class. — Politico debae transcript
Trump used legal tax provisions precisely the way they were designed to be used.
But they’re going to keep saying he didn’t pay his fair share anyway. As if any of these Democrats paid one red cent more than the IRS told them they owed… with armies of accountants combing the receipts for every write-off they can conceivably justify.
Cross-posted with Clash Daily
Related:
- Trump’s Taxes Made Public, Whose Will Be Next?
- Dems Release Former President’s Personal Finances in Unprecedented Political Attack
- Trump Tax Returns Going Public After House Committee’s Partisan Vote
- Maddow broadcasts form 1040 from Trump’s 2005 tax returns, WH responds
- Fake News NYT Claims Trump Avoided Paying Taxes for 10 Years
- Report: Trump-hating Dem Rep. John Lewis didn’t pay taxes on nearly $1 million D.C. townhouse
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