As a paid tax preparer of many years, my least favorite question of the interview is the “Public Financing of Presidential Campaigns” and trying to make this REQUIRED selection clear to my client. I recall VERY WELL which major party candidates in 2008 PROMISED to follow this policy and which one WELSHED on his promise - hint it was not the wealthy Republican.
So Mr President, you say you got out-spent in 2008? The facts say that only if you lump together all of the spending by all of the primary candidates of all groups and then compare that total to yours, it might be true and still be as false as Clinton’s deconstruction of ‘is’.
I have been a paid tax preparer for the last 2 years. I also worked in the year-around office April - June this year. It has been a very educational experience.
I completed over 150 tax returns this tax season. Over 90% of my clients said NO on the “Public Financing of Presidential Campaigns” question. I try to steer clear of politics when I am with a client. A lot of them bring up politics on their own and most of these were very unhappy with Obama.
BTW, I passed the IRS Registered Tax Return Preparer (RTRP) exam 2 months ago. I was expecting a more difficult test.