Smart Use of the Tax System? Or a Crook?

 

This headline pretty much sums up what the media buzz will be leading up to the election, “Donald Trump, a bad businessman or a tax cheat-probably both”

Some of the more interesting facts surrounding this statement include the surprise that in the 10 years leading up to his presidency Donald Trump paid no income tax, and only $750 in federal taxes the year he was elected.  Sadly, people working in supermarkets earning $25,000 a year would pay more. 

Now others would claim that this does not indicate any wrong doing, but simply a smart use of our present tax system; and they might be correct.  For Trump simply claimed chronic business losses and wrote off business expenses for years to avoid tax payments.  Heck, he even wrote off $70,000 as a business expense for hair dressing charges while serving on The Apprentice TV show.  Additionally, he received a $72.9 million tax refund which is presently under audit by the IRS. 

However, while all this might be perfectly legal, it does indicate that the persona that Trump puts forth as a successful businessman is a total fabrication, a lie.   He even wrote a best seller book about his success as a businessman, and started a university for students to attend to learn the Trump business model for success.   By the way, the university turned out to be a fraud and cost him over $25 million to settle the case. 

Additionally, it now appears many of Trump’s best known and highly touted businesses are really money losers. These include his golf courses, hotels, and resorts.  And let’s not forget his failed casinos like the one in Atlantic City.  No wonder he continually tries to hold presidential events at and steers visiting foreign diplomates to these places.  Our government has already spent over $1.2 million, since Trump has taken office, in helping to stem his losses by utilizing his facilities. 

But, here’s the real possible fraudulent aspect of President Trump’s finances.  While he continually claimed poverty when it came to paying federal income taxes, he presented a totally different picture during the same timeframe when he was seeking loans from banks totally over $421 million.  To them he provided financial documentation showing successful money making ventures in order to secure these funds. 

And if Trump is losing so much money out the door as he claims, he is going to have to sell some of these money losers to pay off these loans which are now coming due.

There are more tax revelations, but as usual all these are labeled “Fake News” by President Trump and his supporters.  If so, there is a simple solution.  He could release his tax returns and put all this to rest. That is, if he truly has nothing to hide.  Strangely, he has refused to do that, reinforcing justifiable suspicions. 

I always thought that President Donald Trump was a fraud regarding his successes as a businessman considering his ‘daddy’ actually gave him most of his fortune, but what I never knew was how he gamed our tax system and our banking system at the same time by divergent themes.   Someday maybe others will come to realize how difficult it is to determine the truth from the fiction about President Donald Trump, the former TV reality star.  Perhaps he’s not the shinning knight on the big white horse that can save us all, as he would like us to believe; for self-promotion is Donald’s forte. 

“Fraud:  a person or thing intended to deceive others, typically by unjustifiably claiming or being credited with accomplishments or qualities.” Oxford Dictionary

Ruth Bader Ginsburg Deserves More

 

The world lost a true person of character this week when Supreme Court Justice Ruth Bader Ginsburg passed away.  Few people probably realize the personal obstacles she faced early in her life as she tried to enter the exclusive “boys’ club,” known as the law profession. 

The stage set for what Ginsburg would face during her law career was clearly evident when she entered the prestigious Harvard Law School in 1956 and was asked by the dean to justify why she was taking a seat that would otherwise go to a man.  A Harvard law school employee once told her that women were not permitted to enter a room in the library in which she needed to do research. 

Ginsburg graduated tied for first in her class at Columbia Law School, to which she had transferred when her husband took a job in New York City.  But that wasn’t good enough for Supreme Court Justice Felix Frankfurter who refused to interview her for a clerkship because, as he so arrogantly stated, he was “not ready to hire a woman.”  This belief constantly followed her throughout her law career where she had to over-excel her male counterparts. 

In 1993, she was elevated to icon status by being only the second female Supreme Court justice in American history.  In that role she consistently advocated for the equal rights of women.  Early on she wrote the majority opinion in a case striking down the Virginia Military Institute's men-only admissions policy, and in her career delved into areas where no other Supreme Court justice had ever gone. 

Ruth Bader Ginsburg was relentless in her mission as a Supreme Court justice.  This devotion to serve could not have been more evident than her continued service in spite of monumental health issues. 

In 1999, she had surgery for early-stage colon cancer; ten years later, it was surgery for pancreatic cancer, and in 2018 she had surgery to remove cancerous growths from her left lung.  Sadly, these were only a partial list of the health struggles she endured. 

However, through them all she continued the demanding work of a Supreme Court justice without relenting or complaining.  She did not miss an oral argument until her 2018 surgery and even then worked from her hospital bed while recovering.  She seemed unbreakable despite her medical issues. 

But sadly, Friday, her health issues finally broke her and she passed away at her home at age 87. 

However, what followed her death was absolutely shameful behavior by our esteemed legislators in Washington, D.C. 

Forty-nine minutes to the second, after the announcement of Justice Ginsburg’s death, Mitch McConnell, the Senate Majority Leader, with prodding from the press, began espousing how a replacement for her would be immediately proposed by the President and voted upon by the Senate. 

Likewise, Chuck Schumer, the Senate Minority Leader, started advocating how that would never be allowed to happen. And the public jumped on the bandwagon; social media lit up. 

And the games began, with both party members rallying around their respective leaders. 

Couldn’t all of us, and especially members of Congress, at least have given Justice Ginsburg the weekend to think about her as someone who literally gave her life devoted to serving the country.  Didn’t she deserve that respect? 

How sad we have become as a nation over this thing called ‘politics.’  We have not only elevated it to be more important than family and friends, but now it even supersedes paying respect to those who have earned it. 

Kind of makes one disgusted if one of the reasons this occurred was the very thing that Ruth Ginsburg spent her entire career fighting for, equal respect for women. 

Maybe the “boys’ club” is still very much alive and well, or perhaps maybe it was because she was not only a “female” judge, but also a “liberal” one, and considered of less value as an individual by those presently in power. 

Just think about how the immediate aftermath of her death compared to that of Justice Antonin Scalia and maybe you’ll know the answer; conservative male vs liberal female. 

Just where are we heading as a society when we are no longer capable of showing respect for individuals no matter what their sex, party, or political leanings they hold dear? 

So pathetically sad!

Broken Promises

One of the most dreaded aspects of being a politician is being held accountable for what you espoused you were going to accomplish during your time serving the public.  As November 3^rd approaches its time to examine just how many of President Trump’s major political promises have actually become realities. 

Building a wall on the Mexican/US border:  Trump claimed he would build a NEW border wall that would cost about $22 million, Mexico would pay for it, and as of August 18, 2020, reported that the wall was nearly complete. 

Fact: The latest cost is closer to $70 million, Mexico is not paying for it, and as of May, 2020, only 5 miles of a NEW 30 foot high wall have been built where none existed before.  Most construction has been of patch work design to simply reinforce the existing barriers and fencing. 

Replacement of Obamacare:  In 2016, President Trump promised to replace Obamacare with a new, improved health care plan. 

Fact: Four years later no such health care plan exists as a replacement for Obamacare. 

Reducing drug prices:  During that same year, Trump was passionate about drug prices.  He swore to stand up to the pharmaceutical companies, long revered as among Washington’s most powerful interests. He even told Time magazine in his Person of the Year interview in December, 2016, “I’m going to bring down drug prices. I don’t like what has happened with drug prices.  One of my greatest priorities is to reduce the price of prescription drugs.  In many other countries, these drugs cost far less than what we pay in the United States. That is why I have directed my Administration to make fixing the injustice of high drug prices one of our top priorities.  Prices will come down.” 

Fact:  President Trump has done little to nothing to fulfill this promise.  In fact, drug prices are still increasing.  While growth in spending on drugs has slowed in recent years, the total national spending continues to grow.  Americans spend more than anyone else in the world.  Trump’s latest excuse for failing to reign in prices is that he wants to give the drug companies more time to act on their own so that he can broker a deal.  He has had four years to broker that deal. 

Lowering the national debt:  Trump has repeatedly complained about the endless spending of his democratic rivals, and in 2016 he promised to eliminate the national debt. 

Fact:  When Trump took office the national debt was approximately $19.9 trillion; as of July, 2020, it was approximately $26.5 trillion, an increase of approximately $5.6 trillion in four years.  And contrary to what his supporters believe, most of that increase was due to his reduction in taxes plan which was claimed to pay for itself and NOT increase the debt. 

Balance the U.S. trade deficit:  In 2016 Trump bragged about how he would bring the U.S. trade deficit into alignment, eliminating it.  He continually talk about how we should be exporting more than we import and how the Democrats were responsible for the deficient that existed at that time. 

Fact: The US trade deficit jumped to $63.6 billion in July of 2020. It is the highest trade gap since July of 2008.  It is 6.3% higher than Obama’s last year in office, and the U.S. presently has the highest trade deficit in the world.  While President Trump continually brags about the reduction in the trade deficit with China, which is down 22%, his other economic blunders have increased the deficit with other countries; thus leading to the new overall increase. 

Deportation of undocumented immigrants:  President Trump repeatedly told his supporters that every single undocumented immigrant, of which there are estimated to be more than 11.3 million, "has to go."

Fact:  So far, under Trump, a record high of 340,500 were deported in 2019,  a slight rise over the year before, although not as high as during the same length of time for the Obama administration, which deported approximately 410,000.  Sadly for Trump supporters, Obama actually deported more during the same time frame. 

Repairing the nation’s infrastructures:  At the beginning of President Trump’s term he declared that the country's infrastructure "will become, by the way, second to none, and we will put millions of our people back to work as we rebuild it." 

Fact:  Although he has repeatedly vowed to spend $1.5 trillion to improve our country's roads, rail and airports, he has only spent $21 billion so far, during his four years in office, and most still remain untouched. 

So even though President Trump has actually delivered on only a paltry few of his promises, he still enjoys enamored support from his followers because of a robust stock market, his appointment of conservation Supreme Court and federal judges, and his deregulation of government oversite of big businesses, particularly the oil, gas, chemical and coal industries, some of the biggest donors to his election campaign. 

Accordingly, if one objectively judges President Trump based upon his fulfilled promises during his first four years, he probably deserves a ‘C-‘   and not the ‘A’ delusionally bestowed upon him by his supporters and Fox News.  He is not the miracle worker they would like all of us to believe. 

Words are cheap, and President Trump is at no loss for words, but accomplishments are the bottom line and all that really matter.

President Trump has Little Concern for Public Health

 

While President Trump continues to receive praises from his supporters about his successes in regards to creating a robust economy, these same individuals are blissfully unaware of his failing record in protecting the health of those living in the U.S.  Actually, some may be aware, but with all the chaos which always follows Trump, the actual facts regarding this lack of concern for the public’s health is successfully floated under the radar by his supporters, and is seldom reported by the media. 

And I am not talking about his handling of the COVID-19 Pandemic.  This is of far greater importance than that debacle. 

The Trump administration under Trump’s personal guidance has been, for 4 years, systematically undoing the contamination protection of our air and waterways from cancer causing pollutants.

Those efforts have been mainly focused on eliminating restrictions on fossil fuel pollution, which include but are not exclusively restricted to, coal-fired power plants, automobile emissions, methane emissions, asbestos, and chemical hazards. 

President Trump has systematically dismantled the Clean Water Act of 1972, the Clean Water Rule of 2015, and tinkered with the Clean Air Act of 1970. 

Basically the present administration now allows polluters free reign to discharge potentially harmful cancer causing substances into our streams and wetlands without any regulation.  He accomplished this by redefining what is deemed “a waterway in the US;” thus eliminating federal protection of a significant portion of our streams, lakes, bays, lagoons, wetlands, and headways from pollutants.

He has literally put the drinking water for more than 117 million Americans at risk.  Remember the old 1969 story about the Cuyahoga River, in Ohio, actually catching on fire?  Well get ready for the return of that. 

To get a better understanding of what has occurred with regards to protecting our nation’s watercourses, imagine Trump taking  a map of the waterways in the U.S. and using one of his classic Sharpies to place an ‘X’ over a significant portion of them,  and declaring that they shall no longer count as “waters of the U.S.”  These excluded waterways, as they have been defined for decades, are now no longer subject to federal clean-water standards, and nobody will step in to stop polluters from doing things like burying streams with mining debris, or flushing toxic byproducts into a river or bay.

This new policy known affectionately as the “Dirty Water Rule” or “Toxic Water Rule” will negatively impact one in every five streams, more than half of all the wetlands, and many other lakes and ponds. 

Sadly, one would think that residents of the ‘Sportsman’s Paradise’ state would take they heads out of the Trump clouds and become informed about some of the deplorable aspects of the  Trump administration when it comes to protecting this state’s livelihood and the entire country. 

In addition, let’s look at how Trump’s toxic plans regarding air pollution have now hit our state by impacting the folks in St. John the Baptiste Parish. The Denka Performance Elastomer factory in La Place releases chloroprene into the air in manufacturing a synthetic rubber product.  In 2010 EPA determined that this chemical was a likely carcinogen (cancer causing agent), and also determined that the five census tracts with the highest cancer risk were in the vicinity of the Denka plant. 

In 2017, it was mandated that the company reduce this pollutant by 85%.  

However, a new air pollution policy from the Trump administration was clearly spelled out in a letter from EPA this month.  The Denka plant will no longer be required to measure pollutant emissions in and around its site beginning in December. No further federal regulation monitoring will take place at all. Strangely, when the EPA was contacted regarding this change, they responded with, “EPA remains committed to air monitoring near the Denka facility.  EPA also remains committed to keeping the La Place community and the general public thoroughly informed about monitoring results as quickly as possible.” 

Gee,  how can it keep the community ‘thoroughly informed” when there is no more required monitoring?  Guess this is just some more ‘fake news’ from the Trump administration minions. 

Maybe the folks in St John’s Parish should have become more informed about the facts regarding the Trump administration’s policy as it related to protecting the public’s health, and, in particular, how that would impact their parish, when they overwhelmingly supported Trump in 2016. 

President Trump is a master at distraction, and the media and the Democrats play into his hand, but his real, present, ongoing danger, lies in the things that he is secretly dismantling without Congressional approval, or knowledge, to the overall detriment of our quality of life. 

So as some of you folks continue to praise President Trump for all his great accomplishments, please don’t forget about the ‘F’ he earns in protecting your health from poisons.  His changes are going to detrimentally impact our lives and your children’s for years to come. 

I, for one, would rather sacrifice some of the stock market returns, for protection from known air and water carcinogens which could seriously impact my health. 

When you vote November 3^rd at least become informed about each candidate’s broad policies rather than focusing upon the political hypes, stereotypes, and fear monger tactics amassed by social media, your friends, and the press.  Do some factual research!  

Looking into the future of Louisiana, happy fishing in those polluted streams and lakes, and enjoy those poisonous shrimp, oysters, crabs, and craw daddies while sucking in the cancerous air, and please don’t forget who you have to thank.