Let the defections begin! GOP lawmaker backs Dem push for Trump tax returns

[kpete]

Rep. Walter Jones (R-N.C.) signed on this week to a Democratic procedural effort to force a vote on legislation that would require President Trump to make his tax returns public, making him the FIRST Republican to back the effort.

Trump broke with long-standing precedent during the 2016 presidential race by refusing to release his tax returns. Trump claimed that he can't publish his returns because they're under audit, but the IRS has said an audit doesn't prevent personal tax information from being made public.

In response, Democrats launched a procedure known as a discharge petition last month on Rep. Anna Eshoo’s (D-Calif.) bill requiring presidents and presidential candidates to provide their last three years of federal income tax returns to the Office of Government Ethics or the Federal Election Commission.

Those agencies would then make the tax returns available to the public. If a president or candidate refuses to disclose their tax returns, the agencies would have to ask for the returns from the IRS.


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http://thehill.com/blogs/floor-action/house/334225-gop-lawmaker-signs-onto-democratic-push-to-demand-trumps-tax-returns

[Dustlawyer]

1. He is clearly hiding a lot in these and it should have been a no brainer except

Republicans would overlook any crime the Orange Sphincter committed if they thought they could get away with it to get their agenda through.

The reflections on Watergate and how the Republicans were reacting then vs. now, principled vs partisan should cause us to examine why that is and what can be done about it. Differences in the money and perks available to our Representatives, the media and how it breeds supporters who overlook anything as well as long as their team wins and punishes the supporters of the other side (even themselves).

Between all of the Special Interest money and the deceitful propaganda that is news today shows a political system and a country spiraling out of control! What can we do? How do we go about it?

Sometimes it seems we cannot see the forest through the trees. We look at individual scandals and issues and fight the symptoms and not the causes!

[sharedvalues]

9. Fight the root causes - e.g. propaganda

Protest your local conservative propaganda radio outlet:
See http://republicanradio.org

Go into any local restaurant or bar that plays Fox News and hand out mmfa's articles. Or Carlos Maza's articles.

Protest at a local Sinclair station.

Write a letter to the editor in your local paper talking about how Fox News or right-wing radio harms America.

[Dustlawyer]

13. +1!!! All good advice!

I would add fighting for campaign finance reform Wolf-Pac.com.

[sharedvalues]

10. You could also donate to

End Citizens United
Let America Vote

Are both organizations doing good work on underlying issues -- dark money and voter suppression.

But it's probably better for you to act instead of just donating. Local action is what's needed.

[Dustlawyer]

14. +1!!! Excellent!

[Equinox Moon]

2. Sounds like a good plan

Although, 3 years look-back is too short. I would say 8 years.

[Ilsa]

3. Yes, a longer term is needed. Dft has been cultivated

as an unwitting agent for putin for years. They started working him by overpaying (and laundering money) for properties ages ago, during his other business catastrophes. Putin's froends have been supporting dft for at least a decade.

[frogmarch]

4. and the defecations.

Actually, at first, that's how I read "defections" in the subject line.

[calimary]

5. God bless Walter Jones.

He was the one guy from that tribe who saw the truth about the Iraq War and said so. And if I recall correctly, he actually backed away from that utterly ridiculous "Freedom Fries" thing in the Congressional lunch room. The CONS had demanded the menu be changed from "French Fries" to "Freedom Fries," because of the "dreaded" French, who didn't want to join what bush/cheney called "the Coalition of the Willing" - other island nations and scattered countries that joined in on the Iraq War. I used to call it the Coalition of the Wilting." That's the same time some of those jerks and their followers on that side of the aisle came up with such cuties as "cheese-eating surrender monkeys."

But again, he was ONE guy. There's only one GOPer out there right now with a conscience and sense of country-over-party duty. Offhand at this particular moment, I can't come up with another name.

[elleng]

7. Yes, calimary, Walter Jones is a real 'mensch,'

no joke or pun intended.

[Ligyron]

8. And he gets re-elected too!

He's a start anyway. Good for him.

[calimary]

11. Too bad there's only one like him.

Sometimes I think he simply doesn't belong in that tribe across the aisle. He always seems to be the first to wake up and break away, but all too often there's nobody coming with him or following in his footsteps.

I imagine, at the rate the Toxic Tangerine is going, he'll stink up the joint so badly that Walter Jones may eventually find himself with some more company. But so far, he seems to be the ONLY republi-CON (or maybe in his case, I should say Republican) who shakes himself awake and acknowledges what the reality is rather than what they all want it to be in their Pox Noise-produced bubble world.

[Ligyron]

12. Yeah, I know...

But maybe he'll provide cover by his example?

IDK

[cstanleytech]

6. In my opinion any Repugnant that didnt speak up before the election over Trumps lack of tax return

releases to the public is a liar and should not be trusted but thats just my opinion.