This whole tax return fiasco is rather mundane and would be considered a yawn except that Hollywooders feel obligated to contribute, fund and voice their witty opinions with regard to Trump’s tax returns.
I don’t know, why don’t we just demand that every Hollywood elitist making over a million release their tax returns, and offshore account status? Maybe we should require all tax haven countries to release said data? Because, we’re paying their salaries, so we should have a right to know all their private data – right?
There is NO law that mandates any presidential candidate release their tax return. And it is a fairly nouveau concept that was initiated by of all people – Nixon, but it wasn’t voluntary, it came about as a result of the Watergate debacle as well as Agnew’s mess of bribery and fraud.
Reagan released one year and claimed it was an invasion of privacy. Gerald Ford didn’t release anything. And Bush and Cheney released partial pieces and synopses, although Bush’s showed heavy charitable contributions – upwards of 62%. The Clinton’s were vague, given they had numerous safe havens, the tax returns were not investigated.
However, what has been consistent with the Obama’s and Clinton’s is the vast wealth accumulated just prior, during and after their elections that eludes to the possibility of hidden or havened or manipulated reports of true income and assets. Lest we forget the bemoaning of Hillarygate as she claimed they were broke leaving the White House only to magically buy multi-million dollar properties and lavish in the bourgoise comfort of a sudden massive accumulation of wealth. Of course, we now know much was at the sweet bequest of the Saudi regime.
The major difference is that Trump is coming into the White House with massive wealth and thus his greed factor is considerably less motivated – for him, it is all about ‘legacy’. Not the monetary legacy that is so prevalent among the mindset of Liberals, but the legacy of change and actually making things ‘better’. The historical legacy. And in that – privacy.
Hollywood should take note and comply with the law. If they want to change the law, then we can discuss that option, but at this point they are whistling Dixie. As I recall, Obama was asked to release his transcripts from college, which he adamantly refused to do despite the consensus that he had falsified his admissions, his source of ‘scholarship funding’, and his prowess as a student.
Alas, the Debra’s of the world don’t seem to think that is important. It is important to acknowledge that after Mz. Debra’s fame in the Will and Grace series, she has been ordained within a number of failed campaigns before her current role of sitting on the sidelines.
Bottom line, Messing is allowed her ‘opinion’, but so is everyone else that may or may not agree with her. The difference is that conservatives don’t tend to claim their opinion is the only one – and everyone else is an idiot or deplorable or uneducated or just stupid per the er, Amy Schumer intellectuals.
So while the whole tax return issue is interesting, privacy does prevail. Still, it would be interesting if we had access to all of the Hollywooder’s tax returns so that we could know if they are paying their fair share while we support their livelihood…and if they actually support charity to any extent, and if they are hiding income in offshore accounts because well, they don’t want to actually ‘pay taxes’ they just want to talk about – everyone else.