Trump and his taxes – misdirection to avoid blame

There’s a lot of talk about Trump and his tax returns, and how much tax he might have paid. Trump says he’s smart if he didn’t pay much in taxes. The Democrats say that he’s a burden on the country if he didn’t pay much in taxes. There are abundant arguments, but I think everyone is missing the most important point.

Necessary disclaimer – I am not a Trump fan, and nothing in this post should be construed as an endorsement of Trump. I am a fan of holding accountable those who would rule us for the mess they have made of our country. I am dismayed when they use even people like Trump to distract from their own failings.

Back to Trump and his taxes. First, let’s set some assumptions. Let’s assume that Trump followed the rules and paid the amount of tax he actually owed. Let’s also assume that he took advantage of all the deductions and credits available to him, like any tax prep software or service guarantees it will do for you. Finally, let’s assume that he paid only a pittance in tax. Does that make you mad? It certainly gives his opponents fits, and triggers lots of insults thrown his way.

But where does the blame lie? Even if you don’t think field goals should be worth 3 points, you still take the points if you make the kick. If you think offsides is a stupid rule in soccer, you still take the free kick when it’s awarded. Playing by the rules, and taking every advantage available under the rules, is part of the game. Which of us would go to our spouse or our friends and say “I did our taxes, and we owe $5,000. I think that’s a little low, though, so I sent in a check for $10,000.” If we’re working on our taxes, and the tax software says “you’re eligible for a deduction that will reduce your tax liability,” we click “accept.” No one pays more than they have to.

There’s nothing wrong with Trump for paying the least amount of taxes the law allows. But there may be something wrong with the law for allowing someone like Trump to pay a small amount in taxes. But where does the blame for that lie? Maybe with Trump, if he lobbied for special tax breaks. But Trump had no direct power to make tax law. Congress and the president make tax law, all 73,954 pages of it (2013, per Wolters Kluwer). Maybe our rulers do it out of their own wisdom, or maybe they do it in deference to influential rich people like Trump. But it’s absolutely in their control, and their responsibility.

The only conclusion, then, if you don’t like the fact that Trump didn’t pay much in taxes, is that you are upset with the president and Congress for enacting tax laws that allow Trump to pay little in taxes. We are in a two part presidential race, though, so we have to assign blame to one party. Which one will it be?

It’s hard to assign blame for continuing existing laws when government is divided (i.e., neither party controls both houses of Congress and the presidency). While one party might really be to blame for a particular deduction or loophole, they can always blame something the other party did. When one party controls Congress and the presidency, though, they can rewrite everything, and the other party can’t do much about it.

In the first two years of Obama’s presidency, the Democrats controlled both houses of Congress and the presidency. They had the power to completely rewrite the tax code. The Democrats, and the Democrats alone, could have eliminated every deduction and loophole that Trump used. But they didn’t. They kept our monstrous, incomprehensible tax code, and set the rules of the game that Trump apparently played well. So when they object to the amount of taxes that Trump paid, they really are complaining about their own poor job of designing tax law. You’re supposed to be mad at Trump for playing by the rules, instead of mad at the people who controlled the rules.

Many magic tricks rely on distracting the audience – flashing a shiny coin in your raised right hand while you make the switch in your left hand. Make the audience look at something else so they won’t notice how you’re tricking them. That’s what’s happening to us with Trump’s taxes – the Congress and the president, all of them but especially the Democratic party, have given us tax laws that are breathtaking in their length, complexity, and unfairness. But we don’t focus on the tax code, or on the people responsible for it; instead, we follow their misdirection and focus our anger on Trump.

What if we focused our attention on those who created and controlled the situation? Will we force our government to be of the people again, or have we created a ruling class that we cannot overcome?