I don’t disagree with this, but has Donald Trump contributed a reasonable amount, keeping in mind we have no evidence he has contributed anything at all. This is why the American people deserve to see a candidate’s tax returns.
“Because people have got to know whether or not their president is a crook.” - Richard Nixon, who turned out to be a crook. Which we learned from his tax returns.
Reasonable is a value judgement. I don’t think that can be answered objectively. Has he paid what he is legally obligated to pay? That’s for the IRS. Do I like the way Trump has done business by apparently strong arming people, stiffing contractors, etc?
My opinion on that subject is for the most part business, corporations, and people should take full advantage of legal options. It’s up to the people and their representatives in government to close loopholes and mitigate unintended consequences.
Look, I want people to be wealthy. I want people to have a comfortable life and a good standard of living. Yet I am consistently anti-minimum wage. Why? Because of supposed unintended consequences. We don’t really know what the crooks on capitol hill intend, we know what they say.
Don’t like the law? Fix the law. Same with immigration. Want more immigrants? Change the law. Same with pot. Want legal pot? Change the law. Don’t like the 2nd amendment? Amend the constitution. We have procedures to do all this. Why should I get bent out of sorts because Trump is doing what is legally obligated?
What about morality? Is it moral? Is it moral to commit adultery? Is it moral to lie? What politicians do we have that don’t lie? That don’t cheat on their spouse? That don’t take a bit larger gift than is legally permissible? I believe probably less than 10% of our political class are completely honest in their lives.
So no, Trump’s taxes are irrelevant to me. His buffoonery is my big problem.
I tend to agree with you here. The reason this is a “So what” discussion is that Trump’s exploiting of the tax code loop-holes to avoid taxation gives an idea of what kind of person he is. Someone up-thread mentioned Leona Helmsley “Only the little people pay taxes”. So Trump is one of the big guys, with an army of accountants at his beck-and call to steer his assets clear of any hurdles. I don’t think most people below the 0.001% have access to such resources to protect their own interests.
Right, so his avoidance of taxes makes him a smart man, and he played by the rules. I get that. So, is Trump going to adjust the rules so the rest of the U.S. has ways to avoid paying taxes, too? Or, should I believe he will close-up those loop-holes so people like him will have to pay more taxes?
Even if I accept everything you said as true, how do you feel about his hypocrisy on the issue? Because he has routinely chastised people for doing what he, himself, was doing:
“@BarackObama who wants to raise all our taxes, only pays 20.5% on $790k salary. Do as I say not as I do.”
“HALF of Americans don’t pay income tax despite crippling govt debt…”
“You know what is the worst part of @BarackObama’s Tuesday speech playing class warfare–we paid for it with our tax dollars.” (bolding mine)
Do you also get that he is (politely put) a two-faced lying hypocrite with respect to everything he’s said about his record that supposedly qualifies him to be President? He made some absymally bad business decisions, lost a billion dollars that was in some large part other people’s money, lost more money for the rest of the stockholders and suppliers involved, then restructured the mess to almost fantasy-land benefit for himself at some enormous expense to all American taxpayers…
But we’re supposed to elect him because he’s such an infallible, badass businessman and deal-maker who’s “working for us, now.”
Right.
You are preaching to the choir. I should have said “I can understand that point of view” instead of “I get that”. Was just trying to set-up my question.
Well, then. Hrmph. <adjusts dickey>
I’m not sure what The Donald hopes to accomplish. I haven’t seen any specifics with regards to his fiscal or monetary policy proposals. What I have seen with regards to comments like defaulting on a portion of the debt is worrisome. I also find it worrisome that Mrs. Clinton has shifted leftward with regards to free trade. I don’t think these isolationist moves are the solution to the real pain that globalization has caused for many.
I think our political leaders on both sides are abdicating their responsibility to lead and part of leading is teaching. They are both manipulating emotions and that’s unfortunate.
Hypocrisy ought to undermine an advocated position. I’m not sure that it does. I don’t like it. I would like for Americans to vote based on logic. However emotion seems to trump logic. So emotional arguments are a rational tactic. I personally find that to be disappointing.
After scouring the internet for something approaching a reasonable hypothesis explaining this huge net operating loss that should have crippled him, I finally found what I think is the truth:
So, it appears Trump used a recently-enacted loophole specific to real estate developers to offload the taxable income from debt forgiveness onto the casinos whose ownership was later transferred from Trump himself to a corporation. The tax repercussions of the debt forgiveness were borne by the shareholders of Trump Hotels and Casino Resorts, while Trump was still able to report on the (seemingly very real) Net Operating Loss that we see in his 1995 tax filing.
It is a brilliant scheme to screw over others and save himself from having to pay over $900M in taxable income due to a large series of debt forgiveness deals with banks. I don’t know whether to applaud Trump and his accountants for so skillfully abusing the tax system or grab the nearest receptacle and let loose.
This is consistent with another analysis I read (may have already been linked somewhere in this thread).
Or he has made 900 Million over the past 18 years. I’ll take it
That works out to 50 Mil/yr
What his supposed public plans are do not matter because they will be tossed in the toilet the second when/if he takes office. What Trump hopes to accomplish is to increase his own personal wealth and fame, The Trump Name, and he sees the Presidency as a tool to open doors, change unfavorable laws and put roadblocks in the way of everyone and everything he thinks might impede his progress.
Much of his candidacy is based on the advocated position that there are freeloaders that are mooching off the system by not paying income taxes. He made no distinction for people who are not paying taxes because they have no legal requirement to do so. The fact that he, it turns out, is one such “freeloader” directly undermines that advocated position.
That was also what underlay Romney’s “47 percent” comment - he included people who had absolutely no obligation to pay any taxes including people on retirement and disability, under-$20k incomes and the like.
But I guess paying nothing because you’re scraping along on $20k a year with kids and paying nothing because you have rock star accountants who can make a billion dollars disappear up its own ass aren’t the same thing.
And the best they can do is spin him as a “tax genius” despite the fact that, seriously, does ANYONE think he’s doing his own taxes?
His proposals are all over the place, saying different things to different audiences. In some he was going to close the carried interest loophole. But none of them closed the loophole that he used.
Because he loves us and loves America SO MUCH. Not enough to give us any details free of charge right now before the election, mind you. But if we elect him? The floodgates will open and Trump’s solutions will pour down upon us. It’ll be like the end of *Mad Max:Fury Road.*We’ll be drowning in WIN.
Will it be like liquid gold-warm wet and yellow?