Reason # 60: Promises, Promises Tax 3
Why do we need to defeat Donald Trump and ensure that a Democrat occupies the White House?
In previous posts, I have tried hard not to be repetitive. After all, there are so many reasons to not vote for DJT, we want to try to cover as many as possible before election day.
But because the primary strategy of the Republican party for decades has been to hoodwink the American public into voting for Republican candidates, in the hope that they will pay less taxes without harming the entire society, I want to spend one more post on this important topic.
The scam goes something like this. You craft a new tax “reform” law. It has to be long and boring and hard to read. This is important, because they don’t want people to read and grasp what is going on. As Tom Waites has stated,
“the large print giveth and the small print taketh away.”
Businessmen use this method, universally. You know what I am talking about. You buy a computer program or app. You are asked to agree to the terms of sale. The online document is fifty pages long. You of course, do not read it, knowing full well, that there are trap doors and snares lying concealed among the verbiage, but you just don’t have the time to slog through the boilerplate jungle. Tax laws exhibit this phenomenon on steroids.
The end result is inevitably tiny benefits for the average Joe and deeply buried major benefits for oligarchs – like Donald Trump.
Consider the tax benefits for those who make foolish, irresponsible business decisions. They get to deduct their losses, from what they owe in taxes. In effect, we pay for their bungling. DJT used such provisions to avoid paying a penny in taxes for more than fifteen years! How? He made a series of incredibly stupid business decisions, buying and then pitting three large casinos against each other as competitors. By the time he had finished, he lost all three businesses to bankruptcy, ruining many others in the process. Tax laws, intended to protect predatory businesses, allowed him to dump all of these losses on the backs of ordinary taxpayers. When confronted with this sordid past, he shrugged and admitted that he didn’t pay taxes because he was “smart”. There is an implied, tacit ending to his sentence. It reads, “and you were a dunce for paying your fair share of taxes”.
Try this exercise. Go back and tabulate how much tax you paid to the federal government each year between 2000-2015. Now tabulate your total tax burden during these years. During these same years, Donald Trump had almost a billion dollars of taxes owed written off. Bottom line, you were a decent, responsible citizen and you were manipulated and bilked by a charlatan.
And that is just federal taxes. You also, depending on which state you live in, pay substantial amounts in state income taxes. Tote up that money. Donald Trump got a $25 million tax abatement from Republican New Jersey governor Chris Christie. You know who I mean, the husky guy who ran for president and got even with his enemies by shutting down access to the George Washington bridge.
NYC mayor Abe Beam also gave DJT a colossal city tax break on his Penn Central building projects. How much have you ever gotten back from your city and state tax dollars?
There is an ancient Chinese proverb that goers something like this.
“Fool me once, shame on you; fool me twice, shame on me.”
Donald Trump has told you that you are a chump for paying taxes. Don’t prove him right by falling for the same old grift by voting for him again in November.
Have a heart; use your mind, search your conscience, and vote for Democratic candidates – across the ballot – on November. 5th.
Please share this message with your friends and please, add your thoughts, to expand upon what are only brief sketches here.
Fred Grannis
September 19, 2024