The states have been working in some rather remarkable ways. There are 14 states and counting who want to overturn the Electoral College and move to the one-person-one-vote popular vote. They have linked together in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact and are over two-thirds of the way there. Yet, there is one state that is doing something even more outstanding, and Donald Trump has to hate it.
New York is working with the Washington, D.C. Democratic lawmakers to find a back door to obtain Donald Trump’s taxes. The state’s Senate and Assembly both have a Democratic majority, and they just passed a bill that lets three different House committees have access to the president’s state taxes. Now, all the legislation needs is Governor Andrew Cuomo’s signature, and he is a Democrat, too.
Unfortunately, the president’s businesses are headquartered in Manhattan, New York. That means he would have to comply with this law. However, lawmakers anticipate he will take the state to court. POTUS has been stonewalling Congress’ subpoena for Trump’s tax returns by means of the Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin, who oversees the I.R.S.
The man in the Oval Office hand-picked the top people at the I.R.S. He told Senate Leader Mitch McConnell to fast-walk them through the hearings even before Attorney General William Barr. Of course, McConnell complied with the president’s wishes.
Congress had been requesting six years of Trump’s business and personal tax returns, but Mnuchin claimed that he did not have to honor the subpoena, because it “lacks a legitimate purpose.” He was mistaken. Fortunately, the president’s state tax returns contain virtually the same information.
Chair of the House Ways and Means Committee Representative Richard Neal (D-MA) said that he might take the administration to court to make the president to surrender his returns.
This legislation does not mention Trump by name, but clearly, he was who the legislators had in mind when they wrote the law. According to The Dayton Daily News:
‘The legislation doesn’t target Trump by name, but it would allow the leaders of the U.S. House Ways and Means Committee, the Senate Finance Committee or the Joint Committee on Taxation to get access to any New York state tax returns filed by elected officials and top appointed officials. The legislation would apply to personal income tax returns, as well as business taxes paid in New York.’
An earlier draft of the bill would have let the committee obtain any New Yorker’s tax returns. It did not stipulate that the individuals had to have held public office. However, the New York legislators decided to narrow the scope of the bill.
New York Republicans have railed against the bill. John Flanagan, who leads the Senate GOP, called the legislation “troubling” and “bad public policy.”
The reason the House Democrats stated was that they want Trump’s returns to make certain that the I.R.S. is appropriately auditing the sitting president, as it does all presidents. The Democrats also want to review the returns to see whether the laws around such audits needed to be stronger.
The governor’s spokesperson said that Cuomo will want to go over the bill carefully, but he supports the basic idea of the legislation.
