We probably could have avoided the last 4 years with Donald Trump if...

[kentuck]

...we had only required candidates for President to make their tax returns public?


That one small oversight could have saved a lot of heartaches and stress.

In my opinion, that should be a requirement for future candidates. Not a nicety, but a legal requirement. If you don't want to show the public your returns, then perhaps you should not run for the Presidency?

[bullimiami]

1. I'm not sure it would survive a challenge. Would probably require an amendment to work.

[brush]

4. If we get the Senate in the Georgia run-offs, it can be new legislation without being an amendment.

[bullimiami]

8. Yes but consider. Presidential eligibility requirements are spelled out in the Constitution.

They don’t include tax returns.

I don’t think it would survive any scotus if challenged by a candidate.

[brush]

10. Or course there we no tax turns then. I say pass legislation if we have the majority...

and let the republicans try to get it to SCOTUS if the can.

[totodeinhere]

11. The law of course would mean an immediate court challenge as you said.

How that would turn out with Trump's judges we do not know yet.

[brush]

12. Probably so, but it would have to go to a circuit court first, right and who knows what...

would happen.

[Boogiemack]

15. Amendments are just that. Amendments it can be done. Why would anyone be against it?

Not having that as a requirement is what has opened the door to so much corruption and aided Citizens United to fester and ruin our democracy.

To me, CORRUPTION, domestic and international. Corruption of despotic leaders like Trump is what has the world teetering on the brink of total moral and physical destruction. We, America, should take the lead by example of rooting out the corruption that we can expose and require of leaders who are responsible for the lives and well-being of their countrymen and women. There should be an international law of decency maybe unwritten and unspoken, but universally agreed upon. We should refuse to do business with autocrats who set out to fulfill their own greed lusts for wealth and power instead of ruling by concern for the safety and health of their own people. Leaders can be wealthy without having to starve, kill, and maime their own people and deny them a means to reap a livelihood for themselves and their families. And they should be held accountable for their actions that threaten our mutual environment and natural resources like air and water.

CORRUPTION should become one of the important bywords of American leadership from now on. This notion of weeding out corruption should be on the table of nations and the UN. It ties into food insecurity, illness, poverty, war, and environment assault. Making that plain to the people of the nations ought to encourage them to overthrow greedy and discriminatory despots.

It's a dream...but "you gotta have a dream or how you gonna have a dream come true?"

[mr_lebowski]

2. I thought you were gonna say 'if Jill Stein's father had loved her more' ... but turns out it was

even better ... offering tangible solutions and all that.

[Blue Owl]

3. Oh but remember, poor little Donny isn't allowed to share his tax returns...

until his never-ending, 100-year audit is over with...

[calimary]

21. Hugo Chavez isn't finished going over them yet.

[Wounded Bear]

5. Even more so, require they pass a basic security clearance...

which includes deep dives into the candidates financial situation.

[Delmette2.0]

40. That too.

Tax returns and security checks.

We expect that much for cabinet members.

The days of honorable people (just take them at their word) running for President are over.

[lilmamba]

6. His cult wouldn't have cared

Remember when Trump said “I could shoot somebody on Fifth Avenue and I’d still get votes”, or something to that effect? If the tax returns were public he probably still would’ve convinced his cult like following that he was a smart dude for only paying $750 a year.

Turn out was the bigger issue in my opinion. It’s a cult we’re dealing with here, he could convince them of anything.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

19. Making his returns public might not have turned off his cult but...

...Trump really didn't want to let his wealthy peer group know he didn't have the wealth he claimed nor did he want to tip off lenders to the real value of his assets.

[relayerbob]

31. Do you really think any of them believed he had the wealth he claimed?

Deutsche Bank knew he didn't have the collateral, that's why the Russians were involved. They knew he broke and desperate too, and they got what they paid for.

[Gidney N Cloyd]

38. I'm sure Deutsche Bank and the Russians knew. But wasn't propping up his image to the world part of

...part of what they were offering him? Not just keeping the money flowing but keeping the brand going?

[Hoyt]

7. If we had voted in 2016. But now that it's about over, maybe it's a good lesson.

[Whiskeytide]

9. Maybe they should be able to pass a standard background check? Just an idea. n/t

[LeeAndrews]

13. All candidates should be able to pass a security check

Trump shouldn't have obviously even been eligible to run.

[calimary]

25. Welcome to DU, LeeAndrews!

There were SOOOOO many reasons that rendered the donald ineligible for the Oval Office. Never told the truth. Never coughed up his tax returns. Had NO government experience. Had five or is bankruptcies that proved he's a total loser when it comes to managing money. Left a trail of bad decisions and unhappy, unpaid contractors and subcontractors in his wake. And on... and on... and on...

[niyad]

33. Welcome to our DU family.

[MustLoveBeagles]

35. +1

Welcome to DU

[GulfCoast66]

14. I'm afraid it would be unconstitutional. The Constitution lays out the requirements.

Congress can’t add too or reduce them.

[Pobeka]

16. ... we had an educated electorate. Not the BS system we have now. n/t

[NotASurfer]

17. Congress can request anybody's tax returns

This came up in connection with congressional inquiries. Donnie two-scoops used the full power of the government to run out the clock on those demands, so the tax returns will not be forthcoming until after he's absconded with the WH silverware.

Congress could request and receive tax returns for any candidate, valid national security concerns, maybe we need some teeth in the law so that if the IRS does not comply, there are consequences. I think your suggestion is entirely reasonable and can be implemented as a natural exercise of congressional oversight.

[nature-lover]

18. Candidates also need to get the highest security clearance.

[Bettie]

20. I'd also add that if someone is running for president

they should be able to acquire a security clearance legitimately, not "he has to have one because he was elected".

[bucolic_frolic]

22. Yeah, and you should demonstrate some actual evidence of public service

but you know the 1% got everything they wanted and then some, and they would have pushed HRC for all she was worth and gotten much of it anyway by making her political life miserable.

And I'm uncertain as to what can be said to be the benefit of dismantling everything the US stood from from 1918 to 2016. I mean they got tax cuts and pollution deregulation and federal lands like the Teapot Dome scandal.

Still seems like some invisible foreign enemies of democracy, perhaps those we defeated in wars, were backing Trump. Boy it would be great to see those tax returns.

[BobTheSubgenius]

23. I think it's a great idea.

But doesn't have much chance of becoming law, unfortunately.

Thing of it is, though....it's the same for all candidates. How is that unfair or unreasonable?

[Joinfortmill]

24. Agree

[RANDYWILDMAN]

26. A really simple step and so Necessary since the "i'm not a crook guy" and for Crooked Donald

Cause he is just a freaking Mobster who only owes money to Gangsters and pays $750 dollars in taxes.


Hilary f-ing knew the whole time that he was 1oo% fraud and said it in too nice of a way for his cultists to understand!

Shizz he went from 62 million to 75 million fans in 4 years and all he did was lie and feed them bullshit. Hate must spread like covid !

[AmericanCanuck]

27. We could have avoided Donald Trump

if people like David Sirota, Nina Turner and Brihana Joy-Grey (and thousands of others like them) had supported Hillary Clinton instead of the Moscow Jill Stein.

What were they thinking?

[relayerbob]

28. You assume that the people who voted for him cared

They don't. He appealed to their racism, hatred and fear. Especially of the "gubmint". Any tax return problems would have beend ecried as fake and promptly lied about or ignored. What would have avoided the last four years would have been to actually prosecute him for his illegal financial dealings over the last several decades.

I do agree that tax returns be made public, but don't think those would form any sort of filter or liability for those running when their followers are delusional.

[stopdiggin]

29. 2 part answer

we should return to that practice (not sure about a legal requirement -- might be tricky. maybe the parties cold be forced to vet, through public opinion, going forward?)

and -- it seems to me that Trump paid very little penalty for withholding that information (I know people I talked to at the time were totally disinterested, if not in favor of his stance) -- and I have serious doubts if the people that voted for him would have been swayed differently by a full accounting.

[Demonaut]

30. and his enabler, Mitch McConnell

[Bucky]

32. I think the best way to prevent the next Trump is reinstate the fairness doctrine

Any kind of broadcast medium, via airways or cable or satellite or internet, any news organization utilizing public assets to broadcast, need to provide equal time for opposing viewpoints on controversial issues.

That means there will be "truthers" of one form or another getting equal time on Rachel Maddow or Anderson Cooper. But it also means reality checks for Sean Hannity, or OANN or Newsmax viewers. Given the threat to our democracy presented by viewer balkanization, I think it's time to force Americans to share a conversation.

No one needs a safe space from reality.

[niyad]

34. Ever since the Eagleton fiasco, I have thought that every candidate for our highest offices

Should have to,pass a basic psych evaluation. I realize all the problems inherent with that concept, though.

[GeorgeGist]

36. I don't think his followers care.

[Demsrule86]

39. I don't believe that is constitutional. The requirements are laid out in the Constitution.

There is needed reform -no doubt. But with people literally starving in the streets and losing their homes...jobs, that must be our first priority... Congress should not investigate Trump. We will never change people's minds about Trump if they are Trumpers. The popular idea around here is 'if only they knew', then they would stop being Trump fans. But I suggest, they do know and don't care and never will but sending help to Americans.We care deeply about punishing Trump and fixing the system. We are political junkies, but Americans want things to get better. In two year if we have been attempting to bring Trump to justice and not seen as caring about the people. We lose the house and fail to gain senate seats when there really are opportunities. Leave Trump to the states and the AG's office.