Donald Trump has refused to follow four decades of presidential history and will not release his tax returns, even those returns filed while he is the so-called president.
Rep. Tom Reed claims the Democrats are abusing their power in asking to see them.
The House Ways and Means subcommittee on oversight is scheduled for the afternoon of Feb. 7, called “Legislative Proposals and Tax Law Related to Presidential and Vice-Presidential Tax Returns,” and a list of witnesses.
This has Republicans jumpy.
The Democrats took back the House in part to be an actual check and balance against Trump's behavior and to force Trump to reveal his finances.
CNN's co-host Jim Sciutto interviewed Rep. Reed: "Next week your Democratic colleagues on the Ways and Means committee will hold a hearing on the president's tax returns. Why don't Americans have a right to see what their president's income is and whether he's paying taxes or not?"
Reed replied, "This is going be an interesting debate. This authority that the chairman of the Ways and Means committee has to pull anyone's tax returns...we oughta be careful we are not going down a slippery slope here of just picking for political purposes someone's tax returns for a political process."
What a liar.
There is no debate. Trump's refusal to release his tax returns was a huge campaign issue from which Republicans and his Fox News minions shielded him. Every presidential candidate except Gerald Ford's has made their returns public . Trump said he would but then gave the bogus "I'm being audited" excuse. The American people have never seen what his actual finances and business involvements are, even while serving as the so-called president. That is unconscionable.
In February of 2016, Mitt Romney went on Fox News and trolled Trump over his tax returns, telling Neil Cavuto -- there will be a "bombshell," of epic proportions detonated on his campaign.
Sciutto remarked that Trump isn't anybody but the leader of the free world and the people have a right to know, but Reed continued with his ruse.
"This is the slippery slope. Where do you draw the line? president?"
Sciutto replied, "Yeah, draw the line at the president."
Reed, "The Speaker of the House?" This is a threat to Nancy Pelosi of course.
"Why not just draw the line at the president? Don't Americans have a right to know whether their president pays taxes?"
To Reed, that's a bridge too far. He made some weird response that Trump has been clear about his tax returns, but if he had revealed them, would he have been elected?
Then Rep. Reed claimed that any Ways and Means Chairman could pull anybody's tax returns for political purposes.
He moronically said, "If it's okay for the president and no one else the next chairman could say, how about my political adversary, the guy down the street I'm having a neighborhood dispute with. This is the privacy debate we'll have on this issue."
How f**king stupid are these talking points?
Republicans in Congress failed in their congressional duties and duh, have used their authority mostly for political purposes. Benghazi, anyone?
As Politifact revealed only a few Republicans have tried to hide their tax returns."It's also worth noting that while some nominees have released numerous years of returns – 1996 GOP nominee Bob Dole provided 30 years’ worth – others have not. In 1980, Republican Ronald Reagan released only one return and in 2012, Republican Mitt Romney released two.
Let's take a look back at Romney, who preached that Trump should be disqualified if he didn't release his tax returns.
