On April 15, Join the Fight for Tax Transparency and Fairness
Give your pink hat a break for the weekend, green is the color for the next big march in the Great Resistance.
This Saturday, hundreds of thousands of Americans across the country will come together in Tax Marches in almost every state, wearing green when possible, to show our solidarity with the movement for tax transparency and fairness.
What are our demands? For the national Tax March in Washington, D.C., these are the principals to which we ascribe: we believe in open government, we demand an economy that works for everyone, we believe the tax system is unfair, we believe we have a responsibility to each other, we believe in people over corporations, we oppose tax giveaways to the rich and well connected, and we believe that tax justice is economic justice.
These principals are even truer now than ever when we are faced with such huge questions about President Trump’s possible financial entanglements with foreign governments or how much his businesses are profiting from foreign investments, in violation of the Emoluments Clause of the U.S Constitution. These are critical questions and until Trump releases his tax returns, we simply won’t know the answers.
The Tax Marches are about saying we won’t stand for Trump to hide behind arguments as fake as a certain pile of folders, there’s no reason he can’t disclose his returns whether or not they’re under audit. Let alone the fact that he could immediately disclose his FY 2016 tax information which couldn’t yet be under audit.
Can you say chicken?
As necessary as it is to shine a light on Trump’s ducking his ethical duty to disclose his taxes, the Tax March has a broader purpose. It is to tell the whole story about how our current tax code is only widening the gap between the rich and the poor and has been manipulated mightily by corporations and the 1%.
To all the hardworking, law-abiding Americans who loyally do their civic duty and pay their income taxes and are either rushing to file their returns or sitting back watching others hurry to get theirs done before Tax Day, isn’t this the perfect moment to say, why me and not everyone, including corporations and the rich?
Why is our system so rigged?
Why are there huge, profitable multinational corporations that get away with paying nothing, companies that get to deduct ridiculous things from their taxes like unbelievably generous amounts of executive compensation, or investment fund managers who are able to work the tax code to pay a much lower tax rate on their billions than you or I pay on our incomes?
Why indeed?
Taxes are the way that we have all agreed to come together to fund the things that we have deemed important, say like feeding the elderly, teaching our kids, policing our communities, providing clean drinking water or streets for our goods to travel on, etc. etc. etc.
Sure, our tax code isn’t perfect. No one said it was. Not only should corporations be required to pay their fair share and all of the gaping loopholes need to be closed, we should be looking at new sources of revenue like taxing Wall Street trades.
The bottom line is that we’re not going to get either Trump’s tax returns or any of the tax changes that we need to end the false austerity that we’ve been needlessly suffering under unless we demand them. Only numbers are going to win this game with the amount of money that’s involved here when we’re talking about corporations being expected to pay taxes when they’re currently getting away scot-free or billionaire families that could finally see the fruits of their lobbying against the estate tax pay off.
So, please join us in the streets on Saturday to stand up for average taxpayers!
And, don’t worry; you have until Tuesday the 18th to file your taxes this year, so plenty of time to join a Tax March near you!