This piece was originally published in the September 28, 2020 edition of CAP Action’s daily newsletter, the Progress Report. Subscribe to the Progress Report here.
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The amount Trump paid in taxes in 2016 and 2017.
Trump just picked a Supreme Court nominee who’s been described as a “targeted missile at the Affordable Care Act.”
So what exactly is Trump’s “plan” for your health care in the middle of a pandemic? To take it away.
Chaos has a price. Share this on Twitter and Facebook to get the facts out:
- Trump paid zero income taxes in ten of the last fifteen years, according to a bombshell New York Times report released last night. According to the Times’ analysis of Trump’s tax returns, he paid just $750 in income taxes in 2016 and 2017, which somehow feels more insulting than if he’d evaded them entirely. On top of being blatantly unfair, every cent that wealthy people like Trump don’t pay in taxes is a cent we don’t get for the bridges, roads, schools, and countless public services that working Americans rely on.
- Make no mistake, Trump has scammed the American people by not paying his fair share. But he didn’t do it alone. He was enabled by a corrupt system that works for the rich and powerful while leaving working Americans behind — a system which he has only made worse with his 2017 tax bill. Crooked Media’s Dan Pfeiffer said it best: “This story [is] about more than the finances of one corrupt, broke man…This is the system that Trump has taken advantage of.”
- It’s unacceptable for people like Trump to cheat the system and reap the benefits of our government without paying their fair share while millions of Americans struggle to get by. It’s especially offensive to get this news in the middle of a pandemic when millions of Americans are still unemployed. And it’s even more egregious coming from someone who sits in the Oval Office and who is supposed to be an advocate for the American people.
- Behind all the noise, here’s the bottom line: You pay your taxes. Why doesn’t Donald Trump pay his?
Do you pay more than $750 in income taxes? Congratulations! You contribute more to the public good than Trump did in 2016 and 2017. Click here to tweet this.
IN CASE YOU MISSED IT
- Progressives are gearing up for the battle over Amy Coney Barrett’s nomination to the Supreme Court. Senators Mazie Hirono (D-HI) and Richard Blumenthal (D-CT), both of whom sit on the Judiciary Committee, have announced that they will not meet with the nominee, citing an “illegitimate” and rushed confirmation process.
- In a letter to his colleagues on Saturday, Senate Minority Leader Chuck Schumer stressed the consequences that this nomination could have for health care, and specifically the likelihood that Coney Barrett would vote to repeal the Affordable Care Act. “We must focus like a laser on health care,” he said, “because Judge Barrett’s record is so clear on this issue.”
- What we learned in Trump’s tax returns may indicate that he’s a threat to our own national security. The New York Times analysis of the returns noted that Trump is approaching the deadlines to pay off “hundreds of millions of dollars in loans” that he personally guaranteed. “The financial pressure on him is increasing.” But why is this a national security risk? Experts say large amounts of financial debt are a common red flag that someone is vulnerable to being compromised by foreign actors.
- Steve Vladeck, an expert in national security law, is among those concerned about the danger of Trump’s debt. “A president who is personally on the hook for significant loans that come due while he’s the president might take official actions…that are meant to alleviate the personal financial pressure he faces,” Vladeck told Rolling Stone. He pointed out that the federal government tends not to give security clearances to people with significant debt because they are at too big of a risk of having their debt leveraged against the national interest. “So, too, apparently, is the President of the United States.”
WHAT WE’RE READING
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