OK, Wolfson, this one's for you- Where are Hillary's tax returns?

[thoughtcrime1984]

What is she hiding anyway? How can we ever have transparency in our government if the CiC is as murky as the Dead Sea?

[Yael]

1. K&R

[Tarheel_Dem]

2. I've been asking that question as well....

My understanding is that she plans to release said documents when & only when she gets the nomination. Well dammit that's too late. Once she's the nominee, it's out of our control as to how the opposition will use this information. So much for "vetting".

[anigbrowl]

3. I don't really believe her

What's so special about releasing them after the nomination? It seems like her strategy is 'GOPers who are offended by my tax returns wouldn't vote for me anyway, while Dems who are offended by my tax returns won't vote for the GOP anyway'.

Clearly, there's something in there she doesn't want people to see. I have no particular problem with her being wealthy as such, she's been at the top of the political ladder for a long time and wrote a best-selling book. In fact, I doubt anyone would be writing 'ZOMG, she has $7.93 million in the bank and gets paid $200,000 to give a speech!!!!!1!!!'. I think most people understand quite well that she's been very successful and is entitled to earn a reward from that. So...why all the secrecy?

Obama 2006 tax return, in case you're curious: http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/files/obama_2006_tax_return.pdf

[Yael]

5. McCain isn't releasing his

Advantage Obama on that score.

If we nominate Mrs. Clinton -- those returns won't see the light of day.

[creeksneakers2]

11. Hillary 2006 financial disclosure form

http://www.judicialwatch.org/archive/2007/Clinton--FinancialDisclosure06.pdf

Why isn't that good enough?

[Yael]

13. If there is nothing to hide, then why not release the tax returns?

They have detail that senate disclosure doesn't like source of funds...

[provis99]

18. if you've got nothing to hide, why don't you want your phones tapped?

If a candidate doesn't want to release tax records, I'm fine with that; releasing tax records is as silly as expecting a candidate to release his/her medical records.

[Yael]

19. Knowing the source of their funding?

Yeah, color me a kook, but I care about that kind of thing.

[creeksneakers2]

25. I don't believe that

If you'd looked at the finacial disclosure form I linked to you'd see it has the sources of income and the exact amounts. I assume since you didn't know that the information was there that you didn't look at the form, which tells me you aren't interested in knowing the sources of income.

[creeksneakers2]

20. I wrote a long post on this thread giving you a half dozen reasons

why.

Clinton opponents always appoint themselves to a grand jury investigation of the entire Clinton lives. Who will be the judge of whether her tax return contains something that points to wrongdoing? The opponents always appoint themselves to judge. Is it fair for enemies to be judges?

Conceding to opponent demands allows opponents to run abusive attacks endlessly. When are opponents ever going to say that Hillary has done nothing wrong and the opponents were wrong when they suspected her? Never!

Notice that no other candidates were pressured to disclose their tax returns, not even McCain. If this was about accountability or anything but a witch hunt the advocacy would be for a rule for everybody and not an inquisition against one candidate. The Clinton opponents are dishonest and try to fool people with claims their cause is better government.

Remember when the GOP used to ask, "Doesn't the public have a right to know?" They subpoenaed everything from Bill Clinton's first Bazooka Joe comic to his last E-mail. Then, when the time came to look into what Bush was up to, the same people suddenly didn't care one bit about the "public's right to know." That whole phrase was just part of a bullshit attack and no more.

Recently, a bunch of Hillary haters said they suspected the New Hampshire primary which Hillary won of being fixed. They pointed to poll results which did not closely match the election. Those same Hillary haters came up with excuses like: "We just want an audit to improve election accuracy. We just want to know if there are flaws in the system." Well, part of the money to do it arrived and the audit was commenced. The partial audit did uncover problems and probably would have uncovered more, but as soon as it became obvious the audit wasn't going to expose a fix by Hillary interest in the audit dropped by 100%. It was never completed or missed. When Obama won the South Carolina primary the polls were even farther off than they were in New Hampshire. There wasn't one peep about the need for an audit then.

Nobody is fooled by these kind of artificial uproars. Its a right wing tactic and everybody participating in it knows what mischief it all is and they all get a juvenile delinquent vandalism rush out of pushing it. Most people are afraid to stand up because they don't have answers for the "can't we just find out to make sure she did nothing wrong" questions and the manipulations by Hillary's enemies. I can answer those questions and I do.

[MadBadger]

4. Her response to this is Rezko.

[KittyWampus]

16. she doesn't have a response. We know about Obama's finances (Rezco) cause he's open about it.

[creeksneakers2]

6. What is she hiding? That's a destructive witch hunt question

The demand that Hillary constantly prove her innocence to people who will never consider being fair to her is part of the Clinton curse. No tax return will satisfy the mob. Giving the mob what it wants only empowers them. The media gets away with saying that Hillary is defending herself against some _______ problem. The voters who see her submitting will subconsciously decide that she's weak because she's being forced to do something she doesn't want to do.

There have been dozens of witch hunts carried out against the Clintons. All have started out with the same stupid "What is she trying to hide?" questions which are really unsubstantiated accusations made to look like questions. The witch hunters throw around words like "accountability" to make it sound like witch hunting serves a valid public need. Its all just a scam to pressure Hillary onto the defensive and to get power over her.

What would happen if Hillary turned over her tax returns? The demanders would look at every item and come up with more questions, more possible transgressions to investigate. Every entry will be twisted to resemble something dirty. The investigations grow.

At some point, some document gets misplaced or two witness remember an event differently (as is always the case in real life) or somebody can't remember word for word a conversation from 15 years ago and all of a sudden there is a cover up accusation. Cover up accusations against the Clintons are unique in that they require no actual wrong doing or item to be covered up to be a cover up. They just require a complaint about witch hunter demands not being submitted to anxiously.

When the whole thing is over and not one shred of evidence against the Clintons shows up the witch hunters stick with the original accusations and the new ones they made up on the way, even if the accusations have been proven false. The Clintons are blamed for the whole uproar. "They are divisive" or some such nonsense. "We would have gotten them too if they hadn't covered it up."

That's why the Clintons don't submit to distrust demands. If anybody is really serious about finding out about the Clinton's money they can look at her financial disclosure forms. Another comes out in May. But that's not what its all about.

[thoughtcrime1984]

9. It's really about transparency in gov't

If we want it, and we damn well should, this would be a necessity- that our President is transparent, ie. willing to divulge tax returns. Obama is a proponent of such transparency- from the top to the bottom, so that we all can hold our gov't accountable for how they get their campaign money. To me, this is a huge component of the change of which he speaks.

[creeksneakers2]

10. No its not about that

If its about transparency then anybody who wants could look at her financial disclosure forms.

Your screen name indicates you are an Obama supporter. I question your motives. If Obama wanted transparency so much he would have asked the other candidates to release their forms too.

In 2004 the wingnuts played the same game against Kerry. They demanded he sign a form 180 which would allow complete public access to his military records. Kerry refused to sign it, probably for the reasons I've outline about Hillary. The right wing raised as much hell as the could by saying Kerry's refusal meant he was covering something up. Kerry ignored the jeers. After the election, Kerry signed the form 180. It turned out Kerry's military service was more honorable than he'd let on. Kerry was getting less credit than he deserved, not more.

[Yael]

14. He did make that appeal to all of the candidates

The reason it is still an issue is because shes the only one left in the race.

[creeksneakers2]

22. I don't remember that

Nobody complied with it if he did. Did they all have something to hide?

[KittyWampus]

17. Candidates have released their tax returns for many decades. It's UNUSUAL for them not to.

[creeksneakers2]

23. Obama is the only candidate this year to release his returns

[David Zephyr]

7. This really is a disconcerting issue and I want Hillary to be the VP on the ticket.

I wish she'd just release the damned returns and get it over with already.

[TexasObserver]

8. If Hillary can't produce her tax returns for the Democratic primaries, she's not true to our party.

We fought for decades to get disclosures, and now that she and Bill have made $10 million a year off nefarious connections the past 7 years, she understandably wants to HIDE those connections.

She's morphing into Bush.

[MonkeyFunk]

24. Why is it only Clinton is hit on this?

Edwards didn't do it. Kerry didn't do it in 2004.

It's never been a tradition or a rule that candidates for the nomination release their returns.

The nominee does. And she's said she will when she's the nominee.

[AtomicKitten]

12. Maybe she's allergic to sunlight.

[TexasObserver]

27. Hillary is certainly allergic to progressive reforms and telling the truth.

[Maddy McCall]

15. She will do what the majority of presidential candidates do. Release if/when she gets the nomination

There is no scandal here, as much as y'all try to make one.

Kerry didn't release his until he got the nomination. Edwards didn't release his.

[Ravy]

21. She seems to be playing by the rules. Why do you want to change

the rules in the middle of the game?

[Alexander]

26. Well the Saudi royal family financed the Clinton Library...

So I'm guessing her tax returns would reveal a lot of shady foreign money going into the Clintons' pockets.

[in_cog_ni_to]

28. Did Richardson, Biden, Gravel, Edwards, Kucinich, and Dodd all release THEIR tax returns?

If not, why should Hillary have to before she's the nominee? Why should people be allowed to scour their income if she's NOT the nominee? That's insane. It's no one's business if she doesn't win.