Chuck Grassley inadvertently admits Congress can see Trump's tax returns
I continue to be amazed at how simultaneously stupid and evil Republicans are. After all, I was conditioned by years of action adventure movies to believe the supervillain is always a genius.
Hannibal Lecter. Ernst Blofeld. Darth Vader. Dr. Evil. Donald Trump. Chuck Grassley.
Two of these kids are doing their own thing.
So, yeah, I guess real life is a lot more like America’s Dumbest Criminals than James Bond.
Just a day after Acting White House Chief of Staff Mick Mulvaney said Democrats will never, ever see Donald Trump’s tax returns, not in a million years, Republican Sen. Chuck Grassley basically admitted that, yes, Congress is 100 percent entitled to them. And he said it on Fox & Friends, which means Trump was watching the whole thing through rheumy, Adderall-bloodshot eyes.
First, Grassley mentioned that he could get Trump’s returns himself because he chairs the Senate Finance Committee. Of course, that right also extends to the chair of the House Ways and Means Committee, who is currently Democrat Richard Neal.
And then Grassley tripped headlong into a steaming, putrescent pile of whoops:
However, he then explained precisely why the law was necessary and inadvertently made the case that Congress, in seeking to scrutinize Trump’s tax returns, had a legitimate legislative purpose to do so — something that Trump’s attorney, Jay Sekulow, has argued that Democrats lack.
“If you need to write legislation, then maybe you need some information from people that are avoiding taxes or using tax loopholes, or maybe not finding a way to get out and you want to change the laws. That is the only reason you should be asking for tax returns,” Grassley said.
As it happens, Trump boasted in one of the 2016 presidential debates that he avoided paying federal taxes at all in some years, claiming, “That makes me smart.” He subsequently signed a 2017 tax bill that will likely further reduced the tax burden that he, his companies, and his family owe to the U.S. Treasury. And he has vaguely proposed additional tax cuts that could also impact his own bottom line.
And … scene.
So there’s your blueprint for getting Trump’s taxes, Democrats. Just ask Chuck Grassley, he’ll tell you the same thing.
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