By the numbers, most Americans pay taxes. An even number believes that doing so is a function
of one’s civic duty. In fact, perhaps
surprisingly, that includes a substantial majority of folks who consider themselves
Trump supporters.
Surprisingly so, because on a gaggle of issues,
Mr. Trump’s surrogates and supporters have consistently unearthed more and more
creative ways to contort themselves into pretzel-shape, all in order to defend
some of the most whimsical and unorthodox position a candidate for American
public office, to say nothing of the Presidency, has ever articulated and
embraced.
While his surrogates are paid to take on this
often miserable job, his supporters from all across the country, if television
interviews are a reliable indicator, willingly, and for free, step up to mic
and utter allegiance to or support for some of the most bizarre public policy
and political pronouncements of at least the 21st century.
Donald Trump and his taxes have been one of the
more talked about matters of the 2016 Presidential Campaign. If one were to conduct an online reference
check, Trump’s taxes probably would not appear as often as “Building a wall,”
or “Muslim ban,” or even Crooked Hillary.”
But it would likely rival those phrases, and exceed almost any
others. The Donald’s taxes have been a
key fixture in discussions about the 2016 Presidential Race for several
reasons, starting with the fact that every major Party nominee for the past 40
years has released their tax returns.
Of course, Trump is not new to outlier
status. Among recent candidates, he is
the lone nominee to refuse to concede, until the last two weeks, that President
Obama was born in Hawaii. He is a
Climate Change denier, and he claimed he saw thousands of Muslims in New Jersey
cheering because of the 9/11 bombings.
There is confirmed science and/or reliable documents that support the
polar opposite of each of those positions.
Suffice it to say, unconventional does not even begin to adequately
describe Donald Trump.
According to a CNN/ORC Poll, which was released
this past Monday, registered voters strongly believe in the nexus between taxes
and good citizenship. The Poll results
showed:
“Nearly all registered voters surveyed -- 86% -- say they see
paying taxes as every American's civic duty, while 12% say that they see taxes
as an unnecessary burden to be avoided.”
While those
are impressive numbers, the number of Trump supporters who concur was nearly as
high, coming in at 79%, or nearly 8 of 10.
It is important to note that most of the surveys were completed prior to
“Saturday night's report
from The New York Times that revealed Trump might
have avoided income taxes for the last 18 years after declaring a $916 million
loss in 1995.” The times did not have
access to Mr. Trump’s entire return. Its
investigators and reporters looked at one page of his resident New York State
return, and on page from nonresident returns from New Jersey and
Connecticut. Aside from the outrageous
numbers involved in Mr. Trump’s alleged loss, perhaps the most damning fact to
emerge from this revelation is that the Trump campaign has not challenged
anything presented by the Times’ story.
Instead they have attempted to pivot and refer to the Times as having
illegally obtained the information.
In fact,
according to a CNN report, Trump or his representatives threatened to file suit
against the Times if it published the story.
Clearly, the Times and its staff were either underwhelmed by the
prospect of yet another Trump lawsuit, or supremely confident in the merits of
the story. In any event, Trump and his
minions, I mean his men and women, have been working double time this week to
render normal the idea of his not paying taxes, and then circling back to
defend his doubling down and characterizing, actually congratulating himself
for being, among other things, smart, genius, and brilliant for creatively
joining the ranks of the non-taxpayers.
As noted
previously, Trump is no stranger to curious positions. There is an inordinate irony encapsulated in
his no tax paying hubris, as he has on a number of occasions, lamented OPP
(Other People’s Proclivity) to not pay, of to pay less than, presumably, Mr.
Trump thought they should. As one of
Twitter’s most famous users, and a prolific user, The NYT (New York Times) cited
in a story published Sunday a number of Mr. Trump’s more pointed comments on
the subject:
You
know what is the worst part of @BarackObama's
Tuesday speech playing class warfare--we paid for it with our tax dollars.
@BarackObama who wants
to raise all our taxes, only pays 20.5% on $790k salary.
Do as I say not as I do.
Facebook
billionaire gives up his U.S. citizenship in order to save taxes. I guess 3.8
billion isn't enough for (cont)
Everyone
is starting to feel the new tax hikes. You get what you vote for!
"@MartyCPA: @gregshoes69 @realDonaldTrump 10% of
the people pay 90% of this countries tax. What wealthy tax breaks."
The @washingtonpost loses
money (a deduction) and gives owner @JeffBezos
power to screw public on low taxation of @Amazon!
Big tax shelter
The
hedge fund guys (gals) have to pay higher taxes ASAP. They are paying
practically nothing. We must reduce taxes for the middle class!
Signing
a recent tax return- isn't this ridiculous?
(This tweet was accompanied by a giant stack of paper,
presumably, the brilliant one’s tax return)
Apart from a robust Twitter feed, this was
another week when the stable of Trump surrogates has earned their money, no
matter how much it is, and regardless of whether it is before or after
taxes. Quickly in the wake of the NYT
story on Trump’s taxes, New Jersey Governor Chris Christie, and former New York
City mayor Rudy Giuliani were either called upon, or volunteered to defend Mr.
Trump on the question of taxes. In
response to the story, in which the Times said documents reveal Trump claimed
nearly a billion dollars ($916 million) in losses from properties he owned,
including casinos, a hotel, and an airline.
These losses had implications on future taxes owned, and according to
Internal Revenue Service guidelines, could be used to offset future taxes for
as many as 18 years. According to
Politico, Governor Christie said:
“There’s
no one who’s shown more genius in their way to maneuver around the tax code.”
Mayor Giuliani appeared on the latest edition
of CNN’s “State of the Union.” During his interview, he said:
“The
headline should have been, Donald Trump takes advantage of legal provisions in
tax code.”
To put a fine point on it, both of them blamed
Mr. Trump’s issues with taxes on the tax code, not Trump. That sounds about right. After all, remember, this is the gentleman
(Trump) who proclaimed he did the country, and even President Obama a service
by successfully pressing the President to release his Birth Certificate. Indeed!
In one very Trumpesque, but non-Twitter
example, during the last Presidential Campaign, Trump found himself prodding
then Nominee Mitt Romney for not being timely in releasing his taxes. Specifically, this year’s Nominee said in
January 2012 about taxes:
“Romney
would “be better off just to release them now.”
In conclusion, there are three things I fully
believe. They are:
·
This election’s results will
not revolve around the issue of Mr. Trump’s taxes
·
Mr. Trump has paid little or
no taxes for many years
·
Mr. Trump will not release
his taxes (so we will never know about Bullet #2
Last night, Tim Kaine and Mike Pence
participated in the lone Vice Presidential Debate of this year’s campaign. CNN’s early returns suggest Mr. Pence got the
best of Kaine. This should be considered
somewhat significant because the audience was skewed Democratic. There will be more Polls for sure, as well as
two more Debates…between the Candidates for President, including one this
Sunday evening.
Back to this post, as it relates to “October’s First Surprise: It’s a TaxingMatter!” I’m done; holla back!
Read my blog
anytime by clicking the link: http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com. Find a new post each Wednesday.
To subscribe,
click on Follow in the bottom right hand corner of my Home
Page at http://thesphinxofcharlotte.com; enter your e-mail address in the designated
space, and click on “Sign me up.” Subsequent editions of “Break
It Down” will be mailed to your in-box.
Consult the links below for more
detailed information on a variety of aspects relating to this post:
Posts
No comments:
Post a Comment