Let me get this straight….

Zooey wrote:

bnw wrote:

Zooey wrote:

Donald Trump pays less in taxes than illegal immigrants do, but they are freeloaders?

Yes, compared to a man paying taxes his entire life while creating jobs for people to raise even more tax revenue.

Okay. Here’s why that is funny.

First of all, he hasn’t paid taxes his entire life; that’s the whole issue here. And may still not be paying taxes. As you know, he won’t release his returns, and there is a reason for that. Perhaps more than one reason.

Secondly, anybody worth $200,000,000 or more cannot AVOID creating jobs. I mean…it would be nearly impossible NOT to create jobs. The only way he could avoid creating jobs is if he kept his money in cash inside a vault. So job creation isn’t exactly to his credit here.

Thirdly, the jobs he has created are largely in the hospitality industry which is the worst industry for job retention in the country. That is…people HATE those jobs more than any other class of job. The hospitality industry averages an 80% turnover in jobs every damn year, as opposed to an average turnover rate of 45% for the economy as a whole. Those jobs suck to start with, and are relatively poor paying, often minimum wage.

Finally, for a rich guy to say he contributes to the economy by having employees pay taxes while he doesn’t…I don’t even know how you can say that with a straight face. Besides which minimum wage employees don’t earn enough to live on, let alone hit a threshold where they will pay any taxes.

Meanwhile, the government is providing him with all kinds of infrastructure support at taxpayer expense, and picking up the tab for services to his underpaid employees.

You might as well also praise him for creating tax write-offs for all the businesses he contracted and then stiffed. I mean…they get to write those losses off on their taxes, right? What a hero.

“first of all” Yes he has paid taxes. He has also taken advantage of tax law when he could which is no different than any other taxpayer entitled under the law to do so.

“secondly” Job creation is to his credit. He builds things. Value added things. Things that create tax revenue.

“thirdly” Job creation nonetheless. People have to start somewhere. Its not like they’re digging ditches.

“finally” You forgot to add that he is a racist.

Should he die broke he’s be in good company.

Even Presidents Go Broke – 6 Interesting Stories of Presidential Financial Distress

EVEN PRESIDENTS GO BROKE – 6 INTERESTING STORIES OF PRESIDENTIAL FINANCIAL DISTRESS
JUST FOR FUN • AUTHOR: AARON JONES
even presidents go broke PIN THIS IMAGE
I had grand plans of getting this post up yesterday for President’s Day but that just didn’t happen so, here it is today for President’s Day Week!;) I hope you enjoy this post that was written by my husband Aaron. – Anna

1. George Washington

The original Founding Father and the nation’s first President had his own share of debt problems. At one time, he was among the richest men in America, but soon found himself shackled with debt when his tobacco crop sales started to fail. Adopting a more frugal lifestyle, Washington was able to overcome his debt and creditors by looking for new and creative ways to expand his income. He diversified his crops, experimented with new farming techniques, and decided to sell his produce locally. His approach is not unlike what we still do today to take control of our finances.

2. Thomas Jefferson

In grade school we learned that Thomas Jefferson was the 3rd president of the United States and creator the Declaration of Independence. What typically isn’t taught is that throughout most of his adult life, Jefferson was deep in debt. Jefferson perpetually lived beyond his means, spending large amounts of money on furniture, building projects, and wine. Lots of wine. During his 8 years as president, Jefferson ran up a personal wine bill of over $10,000. Adjusted for today’s inflation, that translates to roughly $146,000!

At the time of his death, Jefferson’s debt added up to $107,000. In todays terms that would be somewhere between $1,000,000 and $2,000,000!

3. Abraham Lincoln

Abe Lincoln had many occupations throughout his life: rail-splitter, flatboatman, lawyer, and, of course, president. While he might have been great at winning debates, wearing stovepipe hats and killing vampires, Old Abe wasn’t much of a shopkeeper. In 1832, Lincoln purchased a general store in New Salem, Illinois. Sales were dismal and as debts mounted, Lincoln sold his shares. When Lincoln’s partner died, the future President became liable for the $1,000 owed in back payments. Honest Abe continued paying of the debts well into the 1840’s and the debt wasn’t officially waived until he become a Congressman. Nowadays, most people won’t even bend down for the coin that bares Lincoln’s face, but next time you step over a penny, remember that at one point, Lincoln was penniless.

4. William Henry Harrison
Before serving as president, William Henry Harrison, was an ambassador to Colombia. While abroad his family farm went belly up and he ended up owning a lot of money to his creditors. Harrison was forced to sell off most of his land and possessions and he was reportedly still in debt by the time he reached the white house. His untimely death, after only one month in office, may have been the only thing that prevented him from reaching total bankruptcy.
5. Ulysses S. Grant

Grant helped turn the tide of the civil war, but he wasn’t much of a business man. At one point, after the collapse of his tannery business, he was forced to sell firewood on the street to support his family. During and after his presidency, he lived well beyond his means, (a common theme) traveling the world in a frivolous manner. After his presidency, he invested in a financial firm that went ultimately went bankrupt after an embezzlement scheme and he was left with hundreds of thousands in debt. After learning he had throat cancer, and with his family still being strapped for cashed, Grant began working on his memoirs. With the help of novelist and friend Mark Twain, his two-volume memoir went on to become a classic work of American literature and posthumously earned his family nearly $450,000 and helped rid his family of his debt.

6. Harry Truman

Before Harry Truman become president and helped to end World War 2 he was the proud owner of a men’s haberdashery store in Kansas City. It quickly went belly up and Truman was stuck with nearly $30,000 in debt. Truman continued to pay his debts throughout his early career in politics and it was because of his sad financial state that the Presidential salary was doubled. Truman and his wife were the first two official recipients of Medicare when Lyndon Johnson signed the program into law and interestingly enough, Truman debts weren’t official settled until 2012.

In 1947, Truman had failed to pay the newspaper delivery boy for six months worth of papers so in May of 2012 a Truman impersonator, Niel Johnson, presented a check for $56.63 to George Lund, Truman’s old delivery boy, now an 80-year-old retiree, for the unpaid papers. The original total was $7.50. Johnson included 65 years worth of interest

Zooey wrote:

Republican Mentality:

If you’re rich and pay no taxes, you are a genius.
If you’re poor and pay no taxes, you are a moocher.

————–

I blame the poor for not creating more jobs,
myself.

w
v

I think it’s a big mistake to assume Trump hasn’t done anything illegal — regarding his taxes, or anything else. He has a history of breaking the law and getting away with it. He has four thousand lawsuits against him, active. The states attorney for New York says the Trump Foundation has been acting illegally there. He’s bribed several key officials, including Pam Bondi, to suppress investigations against him, including Trump University, etc. etc.

The Many Scandals of Donald Trump: A Cheat Sheet New York’s attorney general has ordered the Trump Foundation to quit raising money, saying it is violating state law by doing so.

The Post’s David Fahrenthold has published a series of damaging stories about the foundation. Despite bearing Trump’s name, the foundation has largely been run using other people’s money for about a decade now, as it draws donations from other givers, then donates them under Trump’s name. Earlier this year, the foundation raised a reported $1.67 million for veterans’ causes. Donald Trump has reportedly used Trump Foundation donations to settle legal issues involving himself, as well as to buy gifts that he may have kept. Both of those would violate rules that ban “self-dealing” by charities. In addition, there are cases where Trump directed income to the foundation, but it’s not clear that he paid income taxes on those monies, as required.

Schneiderman is investigating the Trump Foundation to see whether it broke rules against self-dealing by buying gifts for Trump, settling legal cases with foundation monies, and making a political donation to Florida Attorney General Pam Bondi, whose office was at the time deciding whether or not to pursue an investigation into Trump University.

We also know that the 1995 writeoff is just one of many. He paid no taxes in several years prior to this as well. No, Donald Trump’s tax avoidance is not normal — Josh Barro: Oct. 4, 2016, 3:48 PM

Even if Trump had generated no net value through his business ventures and was living off his inheritance from his father, you would expect him to be reporting (and paying tax on) significant investment income from his wealth. Indeed, his 1995 tax documents reflect over $7 million in interest income — meaning Trump likely owned $100 million or more worth of interest-bearing investments at the time, despite his significant financial distress.

Yet all the public tax information we have about Trump reflects incomes near or below zero.

Last spring, The Washington Post reported that Trump paid no federal income tax in 1978, 1979, 1984, 1991, or 1993. He did have taxable income in the years 1975 through 1977, with the highest amount of income being $118,530, on which he paid $42,386 in income tax in 1977.

His 1995 tax documents, of course, reflect income of negative $916 million, with reported business losses far more than wiping out his interest and dividend income. Most of that reported loss was carried forward from prior years, which suggests he had several years in a row with no taxable income, going back to the peak of his business difficulties in the early ’90s.