Steve Mnuchin and Teapot Dome UPDATED
Okay, so Steve Mnuchin, who is a creepy guy no matter how you look at it, has announced that he will not allow the Treasury Department to turn over Trump’s tax returns, calling it a “fishing expedition.” I suspect that’s different from a witch hunt because it appears that the last witch hunt found bunches of witches and a few goblins.
This is proof that Trump isn’t the only guy in this administration who cannot read.
The chairmen of the House Ways and Means Committee and the Senate Finance Committee have had the authority since 1924 to obtain the tax returns of any American, and the law stipulates that the treasury secretary “shall furnish” the information once it is requested. This law was put in place during the Harding administration because of financial improprieties that stemmed from the Teapot Dome scandal.
Shall is a pretty definite word. It does not say, “if you want to” or “except for fishing expeditions.” It says shall. They could have said can but they didn’t.
I’m not saying that congress should also request Mnuchin’s tax returns, but it might be fun.
UPDATE: Deb T reminded me of something timely today:
Sad. Only person anywhere near IQ4.5 who approached telling the truth, Rexxon Drillerson, was too weak to own the words: ***king moron.
Mnunchin is just another in a series of flying monkeys or headless rabbits crying “rule of law. what law?” Meanwhile Whitewash Willie Barr is there to rewrite and/or misinterpret every law this criminal maladministration violates. Makes racist tool Jeff Sessions seem almost decent (by comparison only.)
1“I’m not saying that congress should also request Mnuchin’s tax returns, but it might be fun.”
Perfect. Yes. Yes they should!
2Oh look! Another word the Trump Administration doesn’t understand.
3Shall (auxiliary verb)
* used to express determination
(they shall not pass – see Gandalf #LOTR
* used in laws, regulations, or directives to express what is mandatory
a: will have to MUST
b: will be able to CAN
For Wingnuts, “shall” is only definite for Second Amendment purposes.
4Sadly enough I fear that the 5 fools on the supreme court will give their master a free ride on this.
5The distinction with Nixon’s case is that he faced a Congress that had the guts to call for an impeachment investigation before demanding the tax returns.
6B.L.O.A.T.U.S Biggest Loser of All Time.
-Whats Past Is Prologue. – Shakespeare
A report from the New York Times broke Tuesday night detailing the findings from an examination of a decade worth of President Donald Trump’s tax returns.
The returns are from the years 1985 to 1994, the report said, and they show that in that time he had more than $1 billion in business losses.
“The numbers show that in 1985, Mr. Trump reported losses of $46.1 million from his core businesses — largely casinos, hotels and retail space in apartment buildings,” the report said. “They continued to lose money every year, totaling $1.17 billion in losses for the decade.”
That sounds pretty bad — and it is. According to the Times, it the president “appears to have lost more money than nearly any other individual American taxpayer, The Times found when it compared his results with detailed information the I.R.S. compiles on an annual sampling of high-income earners.”
https://www.alternet.org/2019/05/new-report-on-trumps-taxes-shows-how-his-businesses-lost-more-than-1-billion/
7Make this guy the first to be tossed in the cell. They will learn after that.
@K – Roberts appears (hopefully consistently) to be taking the more left side, possibly because he has the good sense to realize his legacy will be stained otherwise.
8What would anyone expect of a guy whose previous experience was as the producer of such award winning films as Suicide Squad?
9God, I’m so sick of this guy and his weird marionette face.
10I’m with Cheryl – throw his ass in jail!