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1934 - Bouquet Canyon Reservoir, replacement for ill-fated St. Francis Dam & reservoir, begins to fill with water [story]
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The Real Side | Commentary by Joe Messina
| Tuesday, Oct 4, 2016

joemessinamugWe’ve got ‘em. Democrats are like a new puppy peeing all over itself when you first bring it home. They are all excited that Donald Trump used his knowledge of the broken tax system to take legal advantage of the tax code for his business. He claimed he lost more than $900 million in 1995.

The dictionary defines “fantasy” as “a place that is unreal or imaginary or that excites wonder.”

It’s a wonder, all right. It’s a wonder that the hard left gives a pass to all of the illegal activities of their elected representatives and leaders. Rev. Al Sharpton owes millions in back taxes but is still out of prison. George Soros owes more than $7 billion. No noise about that. And let’s not forget former Treasury Secretary Tim Geitner. Oh, and Democratic Rep. Charles Rangel – he belonged to the committee that wrote tax laws – and Democratic Sen. Claire McCaskill, one of the richest members of Congress. Then there is Tom Daschle, the Dems’ choice for HHS secretary who had to drop out when the media – not the mainstream media – pointed out he didn’t and wouldn’t pay the taxes he owed.

More than 40 Obama staffers owe close to $1 million in back taxes.

Before you start sending me the names of Republicans who owe taxes, save the brain cells. Note that I didn’t say only Dems owed taxes or that only Dems are tax cheats. But I am dealing with the drooling bunch of Dems who are loving that fact that Trump lost money in 1995.

So let’s return from Fantasyland back to the U.S. Many, many, many businesses show a loss when reporting revenue because they write off every legally allowed deduction that both Democrats and Republicans have voted for. Even when the Dems had control of all three branches of the federal government, they didn’t fix any of the tax code. So when they keep saying “we need to close the loopholes,” I say BS. They could have done it and chose not to.

And let’s make a distinction here. The Dems mentioned above chose not to pay what they owed and even failed to report items they were supposed to disclose. Trump declared all and took the proper legal deductions. Big difference.

Every small business in this country who has any CPA worth his money takes every legal deduction available. Are they also guilty of “whatever” Trump is being accused of by claiming a loss and legally not paying taxes?

The Clintons have released their tax returns. “Isn’t that special?” Do you think they, too, avoided paying the much higher taxes they keep asking the 1 percent to pay more of by using legal tax codes? Of course they did.

Also, note that since the Clinton Foundation is a nonprofit, it pays zero taxes. It pays more than 80 percent in payroll, 15 percent-plus in office expenses, and what little is left over makes it to those in need – sometimes.

All of this is within the guidelines of the tax laws of these Unites States.

No complaints from the left. Not a word.

With the way tax laws are written, Trump could have legally not paid taxes for the next 18 years, according to many tax experts. There is no proof whether took advantage of that, yet.

But according to the Wall Street Journal, the Clintons get a pass. Her highness Hillary and her husband King “DropTrou” admitted back in 1996 that they shortchanged the U.S. Treasury on at least five of the federal income tax returns they filed during his tenure as governor of Arkansas. Among other things, they understated their capital gains, failed to report a commodity trading profit, and took many improper deductions for interest payments that were actually made by other taxpayers.

To this day, they won’t acknowledge a much more “in your face” issue with the first Form 1040 they sent to the IRS after arriving in the White House that failed to disclose a taxable $58,000 economic benefit they received as the result of a 1992 (scandalous) agreement that released them from a Whitewater-related debt.

They deliberately lied to the IRS, and according to the American Crossroads web site: “For three years in a row beginning in 2010, the Clinton Foundation reported to the IRS that it received zero in funds from foreign and U.S. governments, a dramatic fall-off from the tens of millions of dollars in foreign government contributions reported in preceding years.

“Those entries were errors, according to the foundation: Several foreign governments continued to give tens of millions of dollars toward the foundation’s work on climate change and economic development through this three-year period. Those governments were identified on the foundation’s annually updated donor list, along with broad indications of how much each had cumulatively given since they began donating.”

Nothing to see here, so move along. Right? Wrong.

Let’s go over a few more of the Clintons’ IRS issues, just to hammer it home. According to AmericaRisingPAC:

2014: “The Clintons have shielded their wealth from the estate tax by splitting the ownership of their New York mansion into separate trusts, which allows the home’s appreciation to happen outside the Clintons’ taxable estate, saving them hundreds of thousands of dollars on their taxes.” Hmm… would anyone else call that taking advantage of a tax “loophole?”

2008: “After Hillary Clinton finally released her tax returns, a $24 million discrepancy was discovered in the Clintons’ income reported on then-Sen. Clinton’s personal financial disclosures and the income reported on the couple’s income tax returns.” Oops. Was that just a minor miscalculation?

1994: “The Clintons paid $14,615 in back taxes some 14 years after they failed to report profits from Hillary Clinton’s commodities trading.” Trading fraud. Failure to report. No penalties or interest? Sure, there’s no special treatment there.

The difference:

Trump took advantage of tax programs legally available to business owners but did not take advantage of his legal right not to pay taxes for 18 years (carrying the loss forward).

The Clintons have a never-ending trail of deceit, contempt, cheating and lying to do anything they please, not reporting personal income, fudging the numbers, not reporting Clinton Foundation income; in other words, breaking and ignoring the law to benefit themselves.

If you still can’t see the difference, put down the crack pipe and seek help.

 

Joe Messina is host of The Real Side (TheRealSide.com), a nationally syndicated talk show that runs on AM-1220 KHTS radio and SCVTV [here]. He is also an elected member of the Hart School Board. His commentary publishes Mondays.

 

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6 Comments

  1. cc says:

    Good article, unfortunately people that need to read it won’t or they won’t understand it it’s like Trump needs to put his ads on msnbc or cnn, although I watch Fox, where I see them, and there are few, I never see anything on the progresdive, liberal stations and the people who watch that don’t get fair and balanced, I saw a pollen last night while walking my dog and he went on about all the Trump violent riots at Trump’s gatherings, I watched hours of those things and saw nothing for months with Trump doing rally up to 10 a week for months but the mayhem left behind by supporters for Hillary or Bernie at its best was mountains of garbage let alone hateful rants and posters fighting and throwing things, if and when a Trump rally had an issue it’s because some of those cronies went to one to start and provoke something.

  2. millie bonazzoli says:

    Trump has hotels and restaurants, they hire servants, people to serve the patrons. He doesn’t make anything, has no factories. His people listened to talk radio, found out what the gripes were, and made that the platform. Now Trump is a front man for his name brand, he’s a salesman, and he’s selling his persona as president. Who’s he fronting for, why not show his taxes, who are his business partners? I assume he will be impeached at some point for gaming the system, his charity, his Univ., something and Mike Pense will be making the decisions. And the Confederate Wing of the Republicans and the Evangelical Republicans want Mike Pense to run the country and choose the next Supreme Court justice. Either way, Trump will have no power, Mike Pense will have the power, because Trump is clueless about DC.
    He has some good ideas, and in the private sector might be able to make changes, but not in DC. So it’s a choice between the lesser evil, and Trumps lack of compassion and sexism swings me the other way.

  3. mellie says:

    Exactly. Keep at it, Joe; the public needs to hear/see the truth about those criminals.

  4. Donald Tramp needs to show us 2015 tax returns. Let’s start there. 1995 was a down market for Real Estate, many property owners had losses. That’s not genius business acumen.

    • Cc mason says:

      Trump is not clueless about anything. Obama was the least qualified person we ever had and his education, not used, was paid 100% by tax payers which he failed like his wife and got an affirmative action degree. You have no idea what your talking about and you don’t understand tax law at all. It’s the Spirit of blindness that you chose as a human being to see what you want to see even if it’s not so…I will never say tge Republicans are perfect but what you people think and say is so far from the truth it has to be an evil spirit because you can’t all be this stupid. Donald Trump never said Mexican immigrants are coming in to commit various crimes, and some may have, he said illegal aliens are criminals, just stepping over the Federal border is a crime, and it’s a Federal Crime, another is illegally being in a National park, which as Americans you can’t trespass in certain Govt parks another crime try to get a job as,an American if you got fined by a Federal peace officer, you can’t. And we haven’t even discussed all the trash left by illegals, where are the environmentalist, and that’s only 3 steps over the border leave out false Id (felony) social services, and dozens of things …they are criminals all of them…I think you should try trespassing in a Federal park, toss some garbage in it as you run from the Federal Police, and remember you are “not” a criminal and see how far that gets you and if you are some kind of government worker in the US, see if you can go back to work after being arrested, you can spit on the streets of NYC in front of a cop but just trespass in a State or Federal park and you are screwed…illegals with no fingerprint in our system are breaking the law in every step they take and yes they murder and rape and rob and I know it first hand all illegals are criminal because they are illegal.

  5. mellie says:

    WOW! CC Mason, you truly nailed it! Good for you; everyone in this country should be educated about this terrible crime being perpetrated against our country by “our own” politicians, et al.

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