David Cay Johnston: For Donald Trump and the 0.01 Percent, the Best of Times

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/11/for-donald-trump-and-the-1-percent-the-best-of-times.html

For Donald Trump and the 0.01 Percent, the Best of Times
Still another reason that the American people must demand President Trump release his tax returns.
David Cay Johnston
04.11.17 5:25 PM ET


Mass demonstrations in 42 states and the nation’s capital this Saturday will demand that Donald Trump release his tax returns. Are there reasons that Americans should see Trump’s complete tax returns?

There are reasons aplenty, but first let’s put Trump’s income in the context of an important new research finding about how the American income pie is being sliced up under current government policy.

Who Really Got the Big Slice of the Pie

Turns out that nearly all the much-vilified 1 percent did not increase their slice of the national income pie between 1992 and 2012. Their income share was stable.

So, who enjoyed a larger slice?

The 1 percent of the 1 percent, the 12,000 highest income households, a group that documents show has included Trump for many years.

The research study found that nearly all this increase comes to business owners who, like Trump, use so-called pass-through entities (also known as flow-through entities) like partnerships and S Corporations. Trump owns more than 500 such business entities.

Many of these Trump entities do business with Russian oligarchs, borrow from banks owned by the communist Chinese government and are in dictatorial countries where commerce is based on favors granted by the ruler.

Without Trump’s complete tax returns going back decades, as the Clintons disclosed, we just don’t know who could be stuffing dollars into Trump’s pocket, who could be greasing his palms and—most worrisome of all—who could put the squeeze on him. And let’s not forget he once risked all just to show his total loyalty to a major drug trafficker, which alone should set off alarm bells about Trump’s conduct. Trump lied and denied about that, too.

Sadly, we can’t count on Trump to tell the truth about his huge income—or count on many of our major national news organizations to accurately report on the public record about Trump’s income and taxes.

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http://www.thedailybeast.com/articles/2017/04/11/for-donald-trump-and-the-1-percent-the-best-of-times.html