GOOD MORNING WORLD
This is a fired-up Friday submission. It is full more of questions than answers however. I have been listening to the news this past week not reading and following as closely as normal. I have scanned the papers only in passing. I have done cursory looks on the web. I am full of questions.
The requirements to be President of the United States of America are three fold only. The first is that you be a natural born citizen. OR if you were born in another country your parents had to both be natural born citizens of the USA. The second is that you are 35 years of age. The third is that you have to be living in the USA for at least 14 years.
Those seem fairly simple to me. The question arises, ‘When did our tax returns become part of the requirement?’ It is written no place in the Constitution. Then again the IRS is not in that document!
In the research I did to investigate this question one source went back to FDR who did not submit his tax returns. Nixon submitted 4 yrs as I remember. Ford submitted a summary only and Carter three years. It varied from then on. The source taxhistory.org
(http://www.taxhistory.org/www/website.nsf/Web/PresidentialTaxReturns)
also said the following:
Individual income tax returns — including those of public figures — are private information, protected by law from unauthorized disclosure. Indeed, the Internal Revenue Service is barred from releasing any taxpayer information whatsoever, except to authorized agencies and individuals.
Question number 2 is, ‘Are not our candidate’s private citizens afforded all rights?’ Question #3, ‘Why do we need these?’ If they have passed any scrutiny of the IRS and accepted then, ‘What do we need to know of one’s private finances?’ We require no one else serving in public office to submit their taxes. Of the 535 members of Congress on 17 make their returns public. When this issue was pushed recently by a news organization, Nancy Pelosi quickly changed the subject to the economy. She further suggested that if the media was covering this why shouldn’t they open their returns? Another question! Seriously?
Does not the President have some rights of privacy? Do not candidates for the office deserve this? We need to know what the platform of the candidate is and how they plan to carry it out. I believe we need to know the character of the candidate as well.
Character is not found on a tax return. Or is it? If you lie about your deductions wouldn’t this exemplify poor character? If you take advantage of all the available LEGAL options, couldn’t this exemplify wisdom to use the tools at hand? What do your charitable deductions say about you as a person?
When we hire someone for a job we interview them. We are given a resume to look at prior to this interview. The job applicant may even fill out an application. This is the information we receive. There may then be a process of one tow or three interviews before an individual is chosen. Today in our PC world we are not to ask age or ethnicity. I found it very interesting when our daughter who is now looking for employment with her newly earned BS degree was sent a piece of paper asking, among other questions, her race.
The ridiculousness of the scrutiny that we put our Presidents through today is exhausting. We spent many TV hours and newsprint columns and internet info to discover that George Bush had not attended all of his National Guard meetings, nothing illegal by the way, and had a DUI. On the other hand we spent very little time on the passage from President Obama’s book where he said, “I blew a few smoke rings, remembering those years. Pot had helped, and booze; maybe a little blow when you could afford it.” Perhaps the reason this was not openly discussed is that he was not arrested? Cocaine use and an arrest are a felony I believe. Now we are after Mitt Romney for a prank he pulled in school. And of course his tax returns.
It is time to make a list of exactly what is required for the paperwork for the Office of President. Simple – a list! In order to run for this office you need to supply your school transcripts from college and grad school, your dissertation if one was written, your work experience from college to now, your personal and business tax returns for 5 years and a copy of your most recent physical. Isn’t that enough?
On the other hand we could listen to what they are saying and judge them on their character. Think the quote goes something like this, ‘Character is what you do when no one is watching.’ The final question then would be, “What were Mitt Romney and President Obama doing when no one was watching?”
…..ONWARD TO MORE MISADVENTURE…
PS ……… funny addition – I cut and paste a lot of info from the web to use or not in my writings. I write my comments above all of these and add what I want. I then run spell and grammar check before I post. I was surprised to see that the page I took from Mr. Obama’s book had more corrections that should have been made then my own post!!! Evidently my stream of consciousness writing is more grammatically correct!!!