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Related: Editorials & Other Articles, Issue Forums, Alliance Forums, Region ForumsYes He Can: Obama Absolutely Has The Authority To Release Donald Trump’s Tax Returns
http://reverbpress.com/politics/obama-order-trump-tax-returns-released/The power of incumbency has a longstanding tradition in electoral politics. Historically, its why the party in power holds the second convention. More recently, it allowed George W Bush to tinker with the Terror Alert System during the 2004 campaign. It gave Obama the opportunity to reaffirm leadership during Superstorm Sandy in the final days before the 2012 election. But a sitting President ordering that the IRS to release the tax returns of the opposition partys nominee would bring that power to a new, and possibly uncomfortable, level. Furthermore, it would feed the GOP narrative that Obama is a president reliant solely on executive power. And though its hard to imagine when you look at the changing demographics of America, there could be a day when Republicans control the White House again. This precedent could easily backfire.
Yet this legislative branch has had an opportunity to decided whether or not to compel all nominees to release their returns. Ron Wyden (D-OR) introduced a bill in May that would do just that. And like almost every other bill or nomination to come before this particular Senate, they did absolutely nothing. So in a sense, if Obama did release Trumps returns, it would follow the trend of acting with executive authority only on matters where congress has failed to act at all.
Perhaps the mere knowledge that the President can order this information made public will be enough to amplify the pressure on Trump, or more importantly, force undecided voters to seriously consider what the alleged billionaire is hiding in his refusal. Either way, its one heck of a trump card in the Presidents deck.
misterhighwasted
(9,148 posts)DO IT!!!
Glamrock
(11,787 posts)This post just gave me an erection!
alittlelark
(18,888 posts)Glamrock
(11,787 posts)The laughter was worth it tho, thanks!
AngryAmish
(25,704 posts)Glamrock
(11,787 posts)I just officially became middle aged. I'm thinking about having it bronzed while it still works!
jonno99
(2,620 posts)Old and In the Way
(37,540 posts)If we don't know every thing about a candidate's health - financially and physiologically, then we need a President to do it. We can't allow for Trump to create a precedent where voters can't evaluate a candidate"s fitness to hold office.
anamandujano
(7,004 posts)I want to post it somewhere but have to wait until it's verified.
jehop61
(1,735 posts)and he would not set such an awful precedent. He is a student of history and acts according to our Constitution. No way.
Separation
(1,975 posts)This would set a horrible president and I can only see horrible things coming from this. Everyone getting a "chubby" from this, well go ahead. But it would be like waking up the next morning only to find out you have a STD.
randome
(34,845 posts)[hr][font color="blue"][center]A 90% chance of rain means the same as a 10% chance:
It might rain and it might not.[/center][/font][hr]
kentuck
(111,051 posts)Donald Trump is the one setting the precedent.
Every President for the last 50 years has released their tax forms. Trump wants to set a precedent of not releasing his tax forms.
democrattotheend
(11,605 posts)It would shift the story to whether he was playing politics with the release rather than the contents of the returns. It would turn Trump into a victim. Terrible idea.
Ilsa
(61,690 posts)Look, it's private information that she would be perceived to benefit from. People are worried enough about privacy as it is. This could be dangerous, as much as we'd like to see the filings.
LonePirate
(13,407 posts)This would be Exhibit A in their case of big government wielding its powers against American citizens.
The most likely scenario to see his tax returns involves a disgruntled but patriotic IRS employee leaking them even at the risk of termination, prison time and lawsuits.
safeinOhio
(32,632 posts)Think of all the crap they have said you are going to do and never did. FEMA camps, take away grand pa's shot gun, instal marshal law, the list is to long. Alex Jones didn't even call this one. October surprise!
Donald Ian Rankin
(13,598 posts)Can you imagine the (mostly justified) outrage it would cause?
democrattotheend
(11,605 posts)Bad, bad idea on so many levels.
It might even help Trump so much that it would get the media speculating on whether he actually wanted to tank Hillary because despite their public lovefest they secretly still hate each other.
rug
(82,333 posts)It does not authorize the President to in turn release the confidential information to the press.
pinboy3niner
(53,339 posts)The quoted provisions do not include the authority to make the records public. And how would that square with other privacy laws and the constitutional right to equal protection under the law?
rug
(82,333 posts)If he did make the request, he'd have to give a reason. "Because trump sucks", while true, is not a valid reason.
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)Igel
(35,270 posts)I'd imagine that if Congress fails to raise taxes to 80%, the tsar' could. If Congress fails to declare war or ethnically cleanse Arizona, the tsar' could.
Tsar' nash batyushka.
Zhivi i zdravstvui,
Tsar' nash batyuska!
Raduisya, veselisya, liud,
Zdravomyshliaiushchii liud!
Uzh kaka na nebe soltse,
Slava! Slava!
(Yeah, it's Boris Godunov. Yet some attitudes towards authority never change. They love authority as long as it oppresses those who they dislike.)
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)rug
(82,333 posts)Here's the statute and the allowed exceptions.
https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/26/6103
KamaAina
(78,249 posts)There you go.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)party over this.
onenote
(42,531 posts)Even assuming it could be done legally, which is extremely doubtful (the President isn't a dictator who get to do whatever he or she wants -- that's the whole argument against Trump's view of the office), the backlash would be extraordinary if the President just demanded to see the returns, let alone release them to the public.
It isn't a trump card. It's a non-starter.
kentuck
(111,051 posts)Just to blow his mind.
Lee-Lee
(6,324 posts)It would probably be the best possible way for them to get out for the Trump campaign, because it would give a distraction away from whatever is in them, and would feed right into the RW talking points about the IRS being abused by Democrats against cons. Heck, this article itself will feed into that narrative.
Horrible idea when you look at it from a strategic point of view.
democrattotheend
(11,605 posts)If he does that the media will focus on whether he was "playing politics" by releasing them rather than on what is in them.
The media is starting to hit him harder for failing to disclose them. Unless and until he does, Hillary and her campaign should keep hitting him on it and talking about what he might be hiding. She can also do what lawyers are permitted to do in court and argue a negative inference from his failure to produce them, challenging him to prove that he paid his fair share of taxes and actually gave as much as he claimed to charity.
I would much rather have him never release them and have voters wonder what he is hiding than have the media spend days talking about whether it was appropriate for the president to release them.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)I don't know where someone got this idea, but tax information is generally, and strictly, confidential.
Crabby Appleton
(5,231 posts)At the very top of 26 USC 6103
(a) General ruleReturns and return information shall be confidential, and except as authorized by this title
(1) no officer or employee of the United States,
...
shall disclose any return or return information obtained by him in any manner in connection with his service as such an officer or an employee or otherwise or under the provisions of this section. For purposes of this subsection, the term officer or employee includes a former officer or employee.
The President can obtain the info in a tax return but can't disclose it.
Yo_Mama
(8,303 posts)With grounds, and certainly not to the public.
That is a crime under the statutes.
vi5
(13,305 posts)..we get people with the HRC campaign out there on every news show, every day, hammering Trump on this?
How about we run ad after ad about how he won't release his tax returns and ask what he's hiding?
Why do we always go to the most convoluted and ill-informed ideas rather than doing what is easy, simple, and to the point? And more importantly.....what campaigns are SUPPOSED to be doing?
EL34x4
(2,003 posts)Truth is, the people who want to see Trump's tax returns the most have no intentions of voting for him whether he releases them or not.
Trump's supporters don't care about his tax returns and many of them see Trump's refusal to release them as a middle finger to a bureaucracy they already loath.
There's nobody out there saying, "I'd like to vote for Trump if only he'd release his tax returns." Additionally, there's nobody saying, "I was going to vote for Trump until I saw his tax returns."
Democrats have nothing to gain if president Obama forced the release of Trump's tax returns. Sure, this might make people already in Hillary's camp happy but it won't earn her any new votes and it might very well backfire, hardening the reserve of her opposition.
GreatCaesarsGhost
(8,584 posts)If he's not being audited, that would reveal the big lie.