I’m wondering if all the Democratic members of the House committee have released their own? It’s hard to determine, since most searches bring up something related to this story
House Dem asks IRS for 6 years of Trump’s tax returns, setting up showdown with White House
President Trump responded with a dismissive taunt on Wednesday after a House committee chairman formally requested the IRS provide several years of his personal and business tax returns, in a move that prompted congressional Republicans to warn that Democrats had “weaponized” tax law.
Told by a reporter at the White House that Democrats wanted six years of his tax returns, Trump replied:Â “Is that all? Usually it’s 10. So I guess they’re giving up. We’re under audit, despite what people said, and we’re working that out — I’m always under audit, it seems, but I’ve been under audit for many years, because the numbers are big, and I guess when you have a name, you’re audited. But until such time as I’m not under audit, I would not be inclined to do that.”
The request Wednesday by Massachusetts Rep. Richard Neal, who heads the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee, is the first such demand for a sitting president’s tax information in 45 years. The move sets up a virtually certain legal showdown with the White House.
Nancy Pelosi and other Dems have refused to release their own returns, which would show how someone on a Congressperson’s salary can make so much money
The president’s congressional allies registered immediate and fierce disapproval. The top Republican on the House Ways and Means Committee, Kevin Brady, R-Texas, wrote to Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin to decry what he called Democrats’ “abuse” of their authority.
“Weaponizing our nation’s tax code by targeting political foes sets a dangerous precedent and weakens Americans’ privacy rights, As you know, by law all Americans have a fundamental right to the privacy of the personal information found in their tax returns,” Brady said in the letter. “This particular request is an abuse of the tax-writing committees’ statutory authority, and violates the intent and safeguards of Section 6103 of the Internal Revenue Code as Congress intended.â€
That provision of tax law generally prohibits the disclosure of personal tax information.
Brady added that while “transparency in our government is enormously important,” the “privacy and freedom” of all taxpayers is paramount — and that Congress should pass new disclosure laws if it sees a problem. Violating the privacy rights of one taxpayer, Brady asserted, “begins the process of eroding and threatening the privacy rights of all taxpayers.”
If Democrats want to play this game, I’ve noted before that Team Trump can use the same laws to obtain the Dems’ tax returns. This is a dangerous road for Dems to travel. Just like with the nuclear option under Harry Reid, Republicans can play this game, too.
Senate Finance Committee Ranking Member Ron Wyden, D-Ore., followed up with a statement backing up his counterpart in the House.
“The law is crystal clear—the Treasury Department must provide tax returns to the Ways & Means and Finance Committees when the chairman requests them. I expect the Treasury Department to comply in a timely manner,â€Â Wyden said. “Chairman Grassley should make the same request so Senate Finance Committee members are also able to access them.â€
Congress must have an actual, important, relevant, substantive reason for demanding tax returns of any citizen, not simply because they’re pissed off that Hillary lost fair and square and Trump is president.
“Congress must have an actual, important, relevant, substantive reason for demanding tax returns of any citizen”
Insofar as President Donald J. Trump is concerned, that actual, important, relevant, substantive reason can be summed up in two words:
Emoluments Clause.
You spelled “fishing expedition” wrong.
You spelled “ignoring the Constitution” wrong.
“People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.”
https://www.brainyquote.com/quotes/richard_m_nixon_116421
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez
â€Verified account
@AOC
Alexandria Ocasio-Cortez Retweeted Mark Knoller
Congress: “We’re going to need a copy of the President’s tax returns from 2013-2018.â€
45: “No, I’m ‘under audit.’ â€
Congress: “We didn’t ask you.â€
Certain committees of Congress are authorized access to tax returns via the IRS.
https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/congress-has-the-power-to-obtain-and-release-trumps-tax-returns/2017/02/07/aa53254c-ea63-11e6-80c2-30e57e57e05d_story.html?noredirect=on&utm_term=.ede7c98a5a01
If only there were some sort of organization that were chartered to defend liberties of a civil nature for Americans. Someone who would take the point of view that every American, great or small had certain inalienable rights. Rights that were spelled out in some sort of document somewhere. But who am I kidding. Nothing runs that way.
Let the dems squawk. They’ll lose this one too.
And they know it.
Apparently radical leftists thing the emoluments clause is there so they can go fishing on any president they don’t like.
So, they floated conspiracies about Trump during the campaign, then accused him of cheating when he won even though they stuffed California’s ballot boxes with 7 million illegals. Then came the the deep state coup d’etat (still under way) followed by the Mueller investigation which uncovered nothing so now it’s taxes and “emoluments”. I imagine nothing easier than to claim “emoluments” against a businessman in office. Since, unlike leftist lawyer/politicians he actually has to produce something to earn a living that in itself is an emolument when dealing with suppliers and buyers. So getting him out of office isn’t enough they want to destroy him financially too as an example for “non elites” who think they can win. Real cute.
Seems the communists on the left just refuse to lose an election and are willing to destroy the Republic to prove it. Peaceful transition of power to them is from one leftist to the next ad infinitum. Sounds like the perfect communist state.
Kye,
Democrats can’t imagine a president actually having a real job before he entered politics. So they can’t imagine that such a president earns money from legitimate businesses. All of their “presidents” “earn” money by taking donations for their “foundations” and book deals based on books they didn’t write and that no one will ever read, but it creates a way to launder money through a book publisher.
A hotel, that charges market rates for a room, which then pays for staff and materials and makes a profit, is in no way an “emolument” under the constitution, no matter who rents the room.
Did you know that Presidents used to actually have whole careers before entering politics? George Washington ran a plantation, as well as other scattered working farms. He Made profits from that. History doesn’t tell us how many foreign nationals may have bought corn grown on one of his farms… because no one cared.
Apparently Kye does not know what the emoluments clause actually says, nor why it was included in the Constitution to begin with.
Real cute. No, wait, ignorance isn’t cute. Not cute at all.
“even though they stuffed California’s ballot boxes with 7 million illegals.”
False. There is zero evidence that seven million undocumented immigrants voted in the Federal election, in California or any other state.
It is, however, soooooo much easier for Kye to recycle Trump’s tired lies than to stick to the facts and conduct a rational, fact-based discussion. We wouldn’t want Kye to exert himself unnecessarily, now would we?
Gee. Would an emolument be Biden’s son getting multi million dollar deals from the Ukrainian government while Biden directed a $1.8 billion to them? No, that’s just bribery.
Yes, I do know what emoluments are and why it’s included in the Constitution which is not to go phishing on a president you don’t like. There was plenty of evidence of fake votes until the left flushed it down the memory hole. Just like they did with the ChiCom spy who worked for Fienstein for twenty years, or Jussie Smollett, or the Las Vegas shooter, or every fraudulent vote cast since they invented the term “vote early vote often”. But we don’t want Bill to actually THINK. It would kill a leftist to do that.
You should be ashamed of yourself just for your disrespect of Teach, let alone your hate for America.
“I do know what emoluments are and why it’s included in the Constitution”
Good. Let’s discuss that.
Direct questions to Kye:
1) What is an “emolument” as the Constitution uses the term?
2) Why is the emoluments clause included in the Constitution?
“There was plenty of evidence of fake votes”
Direct question to Kye:
What specific documentary evidence was presented to back up the claim that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the 2016 Federal elections?
“On Tuesday”
Hmmmm… perhaps I need to type more slowly, so Kye can read the questions…
1) What is an “emolument†as the Constitution uses the term?
2) Why is the emoluments clause included in the Constitution?
3) What specific documentary evidence was presented to back up the claim that millions of undocumented immigrants voted in the 2016 Federal elections?
[…] in which he would mimic them saying “Stop! Or I’ll tell say stop again.” Having failed to obtain all of Trump’s tax returns, personal and business, with all sorts of explanations, […]