Trump cheats at golf - the ONE and ONLY politics thread

On the subject of zingers, I thought Pence had a couple prepared in advance as well, mostly to point out how Kaine and Clinton use prepared lines.

It was odd after Kaine talked about Trump having his Mount Rushmore of leaders (Gaddafi, Kim Jong Un, Saddam and Putin, I think it was) that Pence paused and said, "Uh, did you work on that one a long time? Cuz that had a lot of really creative lines in it."

Of the "prepared zingers" that Kaine delivered, this one probably fit most smoothly into an answer. Also, Kaine responded by saying "I'd like to see you defend any of them," to which Pence said, "I can defend ... I'll tell the American people ..." and then he changed the subject entirely.

 

You're being obtuse on that one. The criticism isn't that Trump should pay more than he owes. It's the perception - probably largely because of Fahrenthold's reporting - that he's committing tax fraud to reach that zero figure, and that he has repeatedly called others out for not paying enough taxes while he wasn't paying any at all.

 

If you've ever said there's something wrong with the tax code, God help you if you ever took a deduction to which you're entitled.

 

That's probably driving some of it, but not all of it. And the Times certainly didn't go there. Without that "perception," I'm not sure there's enough meat for the A1 treatment. They simply oversold it, though it reminds me a little bit of Watergate - they had to get something out there to possibly get the ball rolling.

I don't really buy this, either. He thinks the tax code is messed up. Warren Buffett thinks the tax code is messed up, too. Trump wasn't paying taxes because he didn't have any income to pay taxes on.

 

My daughter was born on December 30.

Took that deduction like an MF'er.

Better not run for office in Michigan.

 

Which leads to an interesting question. Assuming a Trump loss in November, what does Pence do to keep himself relevant for 2020? He could run against Joe Donnelly for Senate in 2018 (and probably would be a small favorite) but if he wanted to run for the White House right after that it would require a super-fast pivot even Rubio would find brazen. If he wins the Senate and waits until 2024, that puts him at age 65 and any momentum from this year will be long gone. And if decides to keep his powder dry as a Fox News contributor, well ask Palin and Huckabee how well that works for keeping your brand fresh.

 

He's not. That part of his tax return that was released is merely more concrete evidence of just how full of shit he actually is.

 

Presumably the IRS has looked at his 1995 tax return by now and perhaps even called Trump in for an
audit. If The NYT wants us to presume that Trump offset future gains with his 1995 loss than it's
also fair to presume that The IRS deemed Trump's 1995 deductions to be legal. If he was doing something illegal he likely would have been prosecuted by now for tax fraud. As a sidebar his tax returns must have passed muster in both NYS and NYC.

 

I would have bet the house by now that someone would have unearthed something disqualifying during Trump's decades in business. But it hasn't happened. The closest is the Washington Post's work on his foundation. Even there, though, the foundation money was always being donated to another charity. It's not like he was using it to pay off the Mazerati.

 

Joe Blowjob told his bitch Mika that they got all huffy about something Dumpf said a couple days ago, so it's time to go back to slurp slurp mode on him for a couple weeks.

Nobody really gives a shit that Dumpf took tax deductions; it's that he took a billion dollars worth of them and then went on teevee and huffed and puffed about the poors getting writeoffs so they have a couple bucks to buy macaroni and cheese.

 

Exactly. Someone from The IRS would have signed off on that deduction by now

 

Sure, he thinks the tax code is messed up, but that's irrelevant to the criticism of him not paying taxes. Maybe he didn't have any income to pay taxes on, but that's certainly not what he wants anyone to think, and also has nothing to do with the criticism of him not paying taxes.

What about it don't you buy? The GOP nominee for President has certainly tweeted about how people don't pay enough in federal taxes, Obama, in particular. So when it comes out that he likely didn't pay any federal income tax for up to 18 years (legally or not), it opens him up to criticism of hypocrisy.

When the GOP nominee criticizes Obama for paying "only 20.5 percent on 790k salary" while he's paying 0 percent, it opens him up to criticism. When he tweets that "HALF of American people don't pay income tax despite crippling government debt" while he's not paying any income taxes, it opens him up to criticism. When he criticizes Eduardo Saverin for renouncing his citizenship to avoid paying taxes, while he is not paying any taxes, it opens him up to criticism. When he criticizes Amazon for not paying its fair share of taxes, while he himself is not paying any taxes, it opens him up to criticism.

The criticism is not because anyone expects him to pay more than he owes. It's just that maybe the guy who isn't paying any taxes ought to stop calling out the people and companies who are.