Posted on 03/18/2008 3:18:22 AM PDT by NCDragon
WASHINGTON — During Hillary's Clinton's New York race for the Senate in 2000, a man in an Uncle Sam suit calling himself "Tax Man" followed Republican candidate Rick Lazio around, demanding to know why Lazio was so slow in making his income tax returns public.
"The people of New York have a right to know what he's hiding," said Howard Wolfson, then a top Clinton aide who often trailed behind "Tax Man" feeding reporters campaign spin. "Rick Lazio's 15 minutes are up — he should stop making excuses and come clean with New Yorkers."
Eight years later, Clinton and her presidential campaign aren't making her income tax returns public. She's promised to release her income tax information on or around April 15.
Wolfson, now the Clinton campaign's communications director, won't say why Clinton wouldn't release her tax information earlier. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., her rival for the Democratic presidential nomination, released his 2006 tax return _ though only his 2006 return _ last April.
Clinton isn't the only presidential candidate who hasn't made tax records public. Arizona Sen. John McCain, the presumptive Republican nominee, hasn't either. His campaign says that he'll make his records public in the next month or so.
(Excerpt) Read more at mcclatchydc.com ...
Because they would show all how corrupt they really are.
Let’s face facts ALL politicians are parasites feeding off the largess of the state at our expense.
Revolution is the key to cleaning up America.
Because both of them are rotten, all the way down to their respective cores.
Why should they? That is not part of the job description. Did George Washington show his tax paperwork. This snooping around is going to cause people to not even run. This is prime example as to why we are stuck with these knuckleheads running for President. I would not show my tax return either and I made a whopping 65K last year.
Ark. Businessman Vanishes Amid Audit
Why won't they make their library donor info public....?
I do wonder why so many who say they can see a "privacy right" in the Constitution just don't think it applies to financial privacy.
Why won’t they make their library donor info public....?
Did Jimmy Carter, Ronald Reagan, George Bush I? If this is normal practice than perhaps they should but if they didn’t then I don’t think they should.
I believe the American people have the right to see the last three years tax returns for every candidate running for President. You give up certain privacy rights if you run for President.
Tax returns speak volumes about an individual. Remember the tiny charitable deductions by Al Gore?
http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/PresidentialTaxReturns
Here are the ones you’ve asked about plus more. They’ve been made public voluntarily since the early 70s.
They are avoiding the public knowing what their financial transactions are because they're trading favors, just like they did in the pardosn situations. I think we used to call that taking bribes. But I'm old fashioned about such things.
they are both really rich, and have very high incomes? IIRC McCain’s wife holds a ton of BUD stock, and Clinton has made probably 8 digits from his various payoffs.
“Did George Washington show his tax paperwork”
He might raise an army to overthrow a tax system averaging 25%+.
They will release THIS year’s ONLY....on April 15th.....cleansed of all bad things and TONS of money given to CHARITIES....TONS!!! It’ll be the Saint Clintons.
This is the first time I’ve heard that McCain was hiding his tax returns. Interesting.
I totally agree with you for private citizens. But people running for high office need to be held to a different standard. Politicians are in a position to use the power we give them to steal us blind. We have to be able to shine a bright disinfecting light on their activities.
Ah yes, the different standards argument. Where does that argument end? Must every twit who runs for a local school board suddenly live up to "different standards"? What about reporters who shape the news and thus public opinion? Surely they should live up to "different standards"? And then there are those employed by the Gov't itself... must they too live up to a "different standard"? What about people receiving other forms of support from the Gov't? Welfare? Social Security? Where does all this "different standards" end? I see it as a too convenient excuse used to bludgeon political enemies.
So given the need for "different standards" (exactly how different we haven't agreed upon), what would you learn on a tax return? Perhaps a sum of money earned for something or from some holdings? Then of course you could ask questions, no demand answers... Was that money earned "honestly"? Was it earned making investments in politically incorrect businesses or countries? Again, where does all this sifting through someone's personal records end? While we're at it we can drug test everyone too as well as strap them into lie detector machines. After all, if you're not guilty you have noting to fear. Bwahahahaha!
To whom vast power is given, much is asked. I don’t think it’s too much to ask that that they show us what they’re doing with the power we give them.
But you can’t draw a line, can you?
There was no income tax at that time.
In 1862, in order to support the Civil War effort, Congress enacted the nation's first income tax law. It was a forerunner of our modern income tax in that it was based on the principles of graduated, or progressive, taxation and of withholding income at the source.
1868, Congress again focused its taxation efforts on tobacco and distilled spirits and eliminated the income tax in 1872. It had a short-lived revival in 1894 and 1895. In the latter year, the U.S. Supreme Court decided that the income tax was unconstitutional because it was not apportioned among the states in conformity with the Constitution.
In 1913, the 16th Amendment to the Constitution made the income tax a permanent fixture in the U.S. tax system. The amendment gave Congress legal authority to tax income and resulted in a revenue law that taxed incomes of both individuals and corporations.
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