Actually I think it would be a good idea for anyone running for office at the state level or above to have to disclose their returns. After all s/he is being entrusted with the power to contract (or at least influence the contract) for hundreds of thousands, millions or billions of the public’s dollars so the ability to examine them for potential conflicts of interest or self-dealing seems rather important.
A side benefit is that it would likely winnow out many of the rich MFs whose hands are less than clean with regard to their accumulation of wealth.
Obviously there is no problem if a requirement to release tax returns were extended to other political offices so the supposed unacceptable consequences never even emerge in this case. But this argument is doubly bad. The thing Republicans never seem to grasp about actual slippery slope arguments is that for them to work you have to show there is no clear, non-arbitrary stopping point. So, for example, when they say, If there is gay marriage next thing people will be marrying their dogs, it’s bogus because obviously there IS a clear line between humans and dogs; the slope is not in the slightest bit slippery.
Same with this case: there is a very obvious distinction between being president and holding other political offices, a line that has been clearly recognized in the past by the practice of presidential candidates alone releasing their tax returns. So again—a clear and non-arbitrary stopping point and the slippery slope doesn’t get started.
I know it’s hopeless to use reason with these people but still…
I think the way to handle the tax return issue is for the parties themselves which are separate individual corporations and not government actors to require that a candidate cough up the returns before they are put on the ballot in the primary.
That is a completely novel idea, imagine actually having held other offices and knowing ANYTHING about how the fed. govt. works. Wish we could pass a law for that and oh lying every time you open your mouth.
Similarly, if you ask med school candidates to present their college transcript in their application for admission, you start down a slippery slope. I mean, does everyone then have to show all of their school work from kindergarten on up when asked? Where do you draw the line? This is a very dangerous path!
A state law requirement for tax returns to be released before getting on the ballot for federal office would be better- it would apply to both parties then.
You would only need a couple of big states to require it before it became a defacto national requirement. Sort of like Texas’ Textbook commission in reverse.
I know this has been proposed by various folks over the last two years. Are any states actually working on it?
All these brave civil libertarians who earned their spurs taking on Individual-1 during the campaign and after when he threatened to lock up his political opponent . . . gotta love 'em.
Well the textbook thing is driven by money considerations and I really can’t see that a state law in some states would bring pressure on states that didn’t want to do it just because some states did. Look at pot legalization.
It’s a good idea if you could get all the states onboard. But there is a possible constitutional issue if a state government requires the disclosure and that’s why I go with the parties - they are private.
Tough to follow the logic here. Candidates routinely released their returns for decades until Trump refused. But the slippery slope is if Trump does what has been routinely done without a slippery slope in the past. Am I understanding it right?
Perhaps the textbook analogy is a red herring- I just meant that you cannot be a successful publisher and not sell books in Texas, so everyone publishes books that comply with Texas’ rules.
Similarly, I don’t think you can win the republican nomination if you’re not on the primary ballot in California or New York (even though you won’t get any electoral votes from those states in the general). States set their own requirements for accessing the ballot. It would only take a handful of blue state legislatures adding a requirement to release tax returns before every candidate would have to release them if they wanted a viable path to the nomination
