If the recent bombshell story about Trump’s taxes doesn’t convince someone that corporate socialism exists and that the system benefits corporations and billionaires, and screws over the poor and middle class, then what will?

First, I hate the term “corporate socialism” for many reasons. We should stop using that. That said…

The liberal side of this is that Trump somehow cheated a fair system. They don’t see this as just another example of how obscene the rich are and how the system is designed for them. They see this – and Trump – as an anomaly.

Capitalism is a double-edged sword. Why blame anyone for using the law in their favor? Change the law.

They are saying on ABC news that his taxes show that he owes hundreds of thousands of dollars, his hotel in DC is in the red and his golf courses are losing money. If he can’t control his own money and many businesses, how can he be trusted to make good, sound decisions for the US? Answer is, he can’t be trusted with our money.

@KNOWITALL Go ahead and say it. You think it’s ok to be a cheat. You wish you could do the same.

Most of my conservative friends think if he followed the law no problem. I tend to think the same. I said that when Democrats freaked out about Romney’s taxes.

We need to change the tax law!

Most people do not understand tax law at all, and they still won’t. Conservative friends of mine are already trying to defend that he paid $1 million and $4.2 million, whatever whatever. It’s a drop in the bucket. There is no question Trump uses tax write-offs and loopholes.

Conservative messaging for years has been the wealthy should be able to keep their money, and many of them believe the trickle down theory.

I’m more concerned about Trump making money from foreign governments.

Edit: why doesn’t someone print the top pages of the return so people can look at the numbers rather than interpret a long article written by the NYT. It still isn’t completely clear if the $750 was the bottom line tax owed or after subtracting the money he paid in to extend the time to do his return. Not that it matters really. Still nothing compared to his earnings.

I don’t agree that there are those who look on it as a fair system. In fact, I don’t know ANYONE who would not agree that the game is rigged. It is in defining of who is at fault that the deflections begin. The one thing that I find most interesting in the debate around this matter is how readily those who benefit most and walk away with the money manage to shift the blame to welfare cheats or illegal aliens, BLM protesting or
other shiny misdirections.
Meanwhile, efforts abound at underfunding and understaffing the IRS as a matter of policy. The thieves rob us then set us to fighting among ourselves for whatever crumbs fall from the yachts. The weight falls on the citizen/sucker with the paycheck where the deductions are snatched before he ever sees it—the chump unable to hide his pittance or smuggle it out of the country untaxed.

I don’t see how “neighborhoods of people of color” were singled out, much less readily identified.

Denial. A large number of republicans simply deny evidence. Scientific, financial, historical – if it doesn’t fit their world view, it is simply denied.

This is the “ignorance is bliss” way of life.

@stanleybmanly: “I don’t agree that there are those who look on it as a fair system.”

Not sure if this was directed towards me. If so, what I was referring to is the widespread liberal hot take that if Trump paid no taxes, it was because he did something illegal or did something to cheat the tax system. There is no condemnation of the concept of obscene wealth, and there is no systemic analysis. It’s just this one guy who did something slimy that people can’t quite put their finger on.

But yes – I agree that most people have a nagging feeling that something just isn’t right. But through complete propaganda, they are told that the problem is not that they are being exploited by the wealthy. They are told that “blacks” or “jews” or “liberals” or “the IRS” or “ANTIFA” or “communists” or “muslims” or “immigrants” or ______ [fill in the blank with anything that is unrelated to an analysis of class and the relationship between labor and capital].

It’s hardly a bombshell. Almost the same story was run 4 years ago, and Trump’s response for not paying taxes then was “because I’m smart”. I expect it’ll be the same again and make almost no difference.

Conservatives tend to have Just-World Hypothesis thinking. The system is fair. It’s ordered by God. The market and price mechanisms correctly and rationally apportion human worth and resources. The rich are blessed with divine providence. The poor are feckless, lazy or somehow immoral.

Any or all of the above, and other rationalisations are invoked to prevent systemic critique, and to maintain an illusion of justice.

P.S. “Corporate socialism” is a terrible and misleading term. Socialism is worker democracy, and working people controlling and managing their workplaces and the whole economy to serve our social needs, without the private tyrannies of capitalist businesses and capitalist bosses taking the fruits of people’s labour. Socialism isn’t “hand outs” or “big government”.

@Hawaii Who’s cheating? Finding deductions in the US is practically a national pastime. Shrug.

It’s not about what he did or didn’t pay. It’s what these facts reveal about his desperation to stay in office—so he can keep looting the U.S. for personal gain and evade the consequences of his stupid, and even criminal, choices.

He owes huge sums of money that he can’t pay. As long as he’s president, he will use his powers to bail himself out—at our expense, and to the detriment of our national well-being. That’s the issue.

And that was not the case four years ago because he was not president then.

If you were the head of a criminal syndicate, or of a hostile nation, wouldn’t you be interested in the president’s financial liability?