https://medium.com/@philgarber/blog
0928blog
I Didn’t Do It
$750.
$750.
Let that sink in.
$750.
It’s roughly the cost for four new brakes. Oh, and it’s also how much self-professed billionaire Donald Trump paid in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency. I don’t know about you, but I took home somewhat less, in fact, compared with the Trump money, mine is somewhere between the size of an electron and non-existent. And I paid somewhat more, make that a whole lot more, I mean a really, whole lot more in federal income taxes than did Trump and you surely did also.
If you believe that Trump has done nothing wrong, ever, and was just one of the most successful business tycoons ever, and that the most respected newspaper in the nation is just part of the same conspiracy that wants to topple him along with Democrats who eat babies, than stop reading now.
But if you have a brain, take a look at the blockbuster report in today’s N.Y. Times. It is long and dense but worth the read as it sheds light on one most tawdry aspects of the charlatan Trump. That is if you care.
After he paid $750 in federal income taxes the year he won the presidency, in his first year in the White House, Trump paid another $750. He paid no income taxes at all in 10 of the previous 15 years — largely because he reported losing much more money than he made, according to the report.
And by the way, he wrote off more than $70,000 to have his hair styled, bleached and combed over during the years of his show, “The Apprentice,” which brought him a cool $427.4 million in licensing and endorsement fees. If you care, nine Trump entities have written off at least $95,464 paid to a favorite hair and makeup artist of Ivanka Trump.
Yes, that’s not a typo: $750 in federal income taxes and everyone should be gobsmacked, flabbergasted and infuriated not to mention astounded and completely shocked and ready to prepare the pillory and by the way, to vote for Joe Biden for president.
If you’re the average American, in 2018, you paid $8,367 in federal income taxes and if you’re unlucky enough to live in New Jersey, you paid out a whopping average of $19,977 in federal income taxes, the highest average in the country. Let’s do the numbers: The average Garden State resident paid 27 times as much as Trump paid in federal income taxes while the same New Jersey resident reported an itsy bitsy, teeny weeny fraction of what Trump got.
Some may say that Trump is just doing what other presidents have done. Wrong. For a little perspective, President Obama and his wife, Michelle, paid $81,472 in federal taxes in 2015 on an adjusted gross income of $436,065, according to his tax return.
Another historical tidbit: Richard M. Nixon paid $792.81 in federal income tax in 1970 based on an income of about $200,000 and we know what happened to Tricky Dick.
The Times report shows in excruciating detail how Trump has cheated. And as sure as night follows day, Trump will simply say that the report is wrong, the biggest hoax in history, that he paid millions in income taxes and would never rip off the American public, cross his heart and hope to die and anyway the Times is a tool of the Democrats, socialists,anarchists,terrorists and baby killers.
It shows how dysfunctional we have become when so many people seem not to care that the president of the United States cheats the federal Internal Revenue Service, leaving the rest of the American public holding the bag and paying their taxes so that the Army can buy its tanks, the highways and dams can be fixed and yes, for that wonderful, marvelous wall that Mexico was supposed to fund.
Now, I don’t know about you but I have a funny feeling that the IRS would not be warm and fuzzy if I had not paid my income taxes. People have gone to prison for such oversights and maybe our esteemed leader will get fitted for nice, new striped pajamas and have to learn to do his own hair, horror upon horror.
A president, either former or sitting, has never been indicted but there’s always a first time. A handful of presidents or vice presidents have been tied to crimes, including:
President Andrew Johnson was impeached by the House of Representatives in 1868 but was acquitted by the Senate.
President Ulysses S. Grant was once arrested for speeding in his horse and buggy but police let him go with a fine.
Vice President Spiro Agnew resigned in 1973 after pleading no contest to a felony tax-evasion charge stemming from a broader investigation into alleged kickbacks he received during his time in Maryland politics, which included a stint as Maryland’s governor.
President Richard Nixon was named by a grand jury in 1974 as an unindicted co-conspirator in the Watergate scandal but never charged with a crime. He resigned before an impeachment process could be completed and later was pardoned.
President Bill Clinton in 1998 was impeached by the House of Representatives for perjury and obstruction of justice related to his attempted cover-up of his relationship with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky. The Senate cleared him in a trial.
Here’s a partial rogue’s gallery list of non-presidential, dishonest pols indicate since 2005:
Rep. Chris Collins, R-N.Y., was indicted on insider trading charges and lying to federal agents.
Rep. Tom DeLay, R-Texas, was convicted of criminally conspiring with two associates to illegally funnel corporate contributions into Texas state elections in 2002. His conviction was overturned in 2013.
Rep. William Jefferson, D-La., was convicted in 2007 of accepting about a half million dollars in bribes. He was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was convicted of failing to properly report gifts from an oil company executive but the conviction was later overturned.
Rep. Rick Renzi, R-Ariz., was convicted of corruption and money laundering and served three years in prison.
Rep. Michael Grimm, R-N.Y., was sentenced to eight months in prison for tax fraud in connection with a Manhattan restaurant that he owned with others.
Sen. Bob Menendez, D-N.J., was indicted on bribery and fraud charges that stemmed from $660,000 in campaign contributions. The indictment was later dismissed.
Rep. Chaka Fattah, D-Pa., was sentenced to 10 years in prison for racketeering and taking an illegal $1 million campaign loan that he repaid in part with government money.
Rep. Corrine Brown, D-Fla., was sentenced to five years in prison on fraud and conspiracy charges tied to allegations that she and two associates solicited donations for education scholarships for minority students and then diverted most of the funds to their own accounts.
Some of the more infamous Americans sentenced for income tax evasion include:
Al Capone served seven years of an 11-year sentence in federal prison on Alcatraz Island for tax evasion. He was let out of jail early while suffering with the advanced stages of syphilis.
Gangster Dutch Schultz was indicted for tax evasion but rather than face the charges, he went into hiding.
President Harry Truman pardoned George Caldwell, George Berham Parr, and Seymour Weiss for income tax evasion.
Joe Conforte, a brothel owner, served two and a half years in prison on income tax evasion charges.
Rep. Martin B. McKneally, R-N.Y., was placed on one-year probation and fined $5,000 for failing to file income tax return. He had not paid taxes for many years prior.
Rep. Cornelius Gallagher, D-N.J., served two years in prison on tax evasion charges.
Democrat Otto Kerner Jr. resigned as a judge of the Federal Seventh Circuit Court District after his conviction for bribery, mail fraud, and tax evasion while Governor of Illinois. He was sentenced to three years in prison.
Rep. Frederick W. Richmond, D-N.Y., served nine months for tax evasion and possession of marijuana.
Joseph Alioto confessed that he paid no income taxes during the years he served as Mayor of San Francisco.
Republican Robert Bernard Anderson, former U.S. Secretary of Treasury, pleaded guilty to tax evasion while operating an offshore bank.
Harry Claiborne, federal District Court Judge from Nevada, was impeached by the House and convicted by the Senate on two counts of tax evasion and served over a year in prison.
Mafiosi “Matty the Horse” Ianniello went to prison for income tax evasion.
Republican Catalina Vasquez Villalpando, treasurer of the United States, pleaded guilty to obstruction of justice and tax evasion.
Associate Attorney General Webster Hubbell, a Democrat, was sentenced to 21 months in prison for mail fraud and tax evasion.
Rep. James Traficant, D-Ohio, was sentenced to eight years in prison for bribery, racketeering and tax evasion.
Rep. Duke Cunningham, R-Calif., was sentenced to over eight years in prison for conspiracy to commit bribery, mail fraud, wire fraud and tax evasion.
Lobbyist Jack Abramoff was sentenced to 12 years in prison for conspiracy, tax evasion and corruption of public officials.
Rep.Charles Rangel, D-N.Y., failed to report $75,000 income from the rental of his villa in Punta Cana in the Dominican Republic and was forced to pay $11,000 in back taxes. He was censured by the house.
Sen. Ted Stevens, R-Alaska, was convicted on bribery and tax evasion but the indictment was later dropped for gross prosecutorial misconduct.
Big Four accounting firm Ernst & Young paid $123 million to settle criminal tax avoidance charges stemming from $2 billion in unpaid taxes from about 200 wealthy individuals advised by four Ernst & Young senior partners between 1999 and 2004.