2016 Postmortem

babylonsister

(171,074 posts) Sun Oct 2, 2016, 05:21 PM Oct 2016

Watch Donald Trump Lecture Americans For Not Paying Taxes

http://www.motherjones.com/politics/2016/10/donald-trump-taxes-50-percent-Americans-dont-pay

Watch Donald Trump Lecture Americans For Not Paying Taxes
"You do have a problem because half the people don't pay any tax."

David Corn
Oct. 2, 2016 11:34 AM

Videos @ link~

This weekend the New York Times detonated a bombshell by reporting that Donald Trump, using a loophole that benefits wealthy dynastic families, declared nearly a billion dollar loss on his 1995 tax returns—a loss that possibly allowed him to avoid paying any federal taxes for 18 years. (The full impact of this loss is not publicly known because Trump has stubbornly refused to follow the traditional practice for presidential candidates releasing his tax returns.) The Times account included a damning quote from Trump's former accountant: "Here the guy was building incredible net worth and not paying tax on it." After the story broke, the Trump campaign released a statement blasting the newspaper, calling Hillary Clinton more crooked than Richard Nixon, and claiming Trump "has paid hundreds of millions of dollars in property taxes, sales and excise taxes, real estate taxes, city taxes, state taxes, employee taxes and federal taxes, along with very substantial charitable contributions."

Without his tax returns, there is no way to determine if the campaign's assertion about Trump's taxes and charitable contributions is true. But in the past, Trump has frequently decried other Americans for not paying taxes.

On July 18, 2011, Trump appeared on Fox News and was asked about President Barack Obama's comments that well-to-do Americans should make a sacrifice for the country by paying more in taxes. He replied:

Well, I don’t mind sacrificing for the country to be honest with you. But you know, you do have a problem because half of the people don't pay any tax. And when he's talking about that he's talking about people that aren't also working, that are not contributing to this society. And it's a problem. But we have 50 percent. It just hit the 50 percent mark. Fifty percent of the people are paying no tax.

This was a Republican talking point—and a misleading one. It was true that close to 50 percent of Americans did not pay federal income tax, but that was because they did not earn enough money to be hit by this tax. Many of these people were working for low wages, or were seniors or young people not earning wages, and they paid other taxes, including Social Security and property taxes. Yet here was Trump brandishing a favorite club of the GOP—makers vs. takers—to denigrate half of the nation.

snip//

Perhaps it was a brilliant financial move. But how odious would it be if Trump was castigating low-income, working Americans for not paying federal income taxes while enjoying a billionaire's lifestyle and stiffing Uncle Sam. There is, of course, only one way for Trump to clear up this matter: release his tax returns. They might indeed show how he was a genius at avoiding taxation—but also a hypocrite.