Sunday, April 16, 2017

#69) Tax Time: Finances, Clonflics, Honesty


April 16, 2017

Dear Mr. President,

Well April 15, tax day, has come and gone.  Protests and demonstrations were held all over the country including Berkley, California where things turned violent and at least 20 arrests were made and about a dozen people were sent to the hospital with injuries - all because you refuse to make your taxes public.  You do seem to bring out the worst in people.  You should also know that the pro-Trump group involved in the Berkley melee were white supremacists. Probably that doesnt bother you, but it bothers me, quite a bit actually. These are dangerous and evil people and they support you.

You sent out two tweets yesterday, both wondering why your taxes matter to anyone.  But I know that you can't really be this thick. You know that your taxes matter because you are no longer a private businessman, you are the President of the United States.  If you are being audited, as you asserted during the campaign, WHY?  An audit is a serious matter and the American public should know why you are being audited in order to assess your qualifications for the presidency.  Now that you are the President, public concerns outweigh your private concerns.  That's just the nature of the job.

People want to evaluate your finances (are you really as successful as you claim, did you really give as generously to charity as you claim), conflicts (will your proposed tax code overhaul benefit your personal interests unfairly), and level of honesty (have you committed tax evasion or avoidance).  Reviewing your taxes is the best way to do that.  When asked to release his personal taxes, President Richard Nixon famously said, "People have got to know whether or not their president is a crook." and every president since then has voluntarily released their recordsuntil you; the one guy with the most to hide and the most to lose.

This is going to seriously impact your ability to pass the upcoming tax reform plan.  If you thought health care reform was hard, just wait.  You ain't seen nothing yet and you've got no one but yourself to blame.

Sincerely,
Amy Beaton

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