Being required to disclose tax records could potentially violate a candidate's Fifth Amendment rights. At the very least such a requirement would require a Constitutional amendment.
I don’t think someone whose tax filings are criminally incriminating should be allowed to hold any public office until after they’ve already been prosecuting and paid their debt to society.
What are the clearances for, you can just show everything to anyone you feel like anyways… Even after you leave office. When everyone finds out about it, apparently half the voters will still say you’re a viable candidate to trust our countries well being with
Eh, when filing taxes the IRS wants you to list all income from ill gotten gains as well. So is that a violation of your 5th amendment rights?
Also, I don’t think the 5th amendment applies at all, a textual reading shows that it applies in only criminal cases “…nor shall be compelled in any criminal case to be a witness against himself…” And a reporting requirement is not a criminal case so far as I know.
Ive known drug dealers who pay taxes and report some type of income to the irs. The two different dudes described it about the same, the irs doesnt care how you get your money, they are not criminal police trying to arrest you, they just want your money and will leave you alone when they get it.
Similar to an emergency room. They aren’t going to report you for smoking weed. They just want to know if they need to treat a panic attack or if whatever you’re on will react poorly with what they need to give you.
Unlike if you’ve been subpoenaed to testify in court, you aren’t required to run for office. If the prospect of your criminal activity being exposed makes you not run, well, that’s just an unintended benefit.
I think it’s ok for them to have stocks, they just should be put into a blind trust to manage, and they shouldn’t be able to make any transactions outside of that for the duration of their term in office.
Hmm, should there be limits? I agree in principle that receiving public money as income should probably make your income records public knowledge, but… do we need to expose the personal finances of every park ranger? every military member? NASA engineers? Education board members? Or limit it specifically to elected positions? Would it then only apply to elected judges but not appointed ones? Every level - fed, state, county, city?
The problem is, your tax records have enough information on them to expose you to identity theft. High-profile positions like the President will have enough people watching all their records to prevent any serious identity theft attempts, but setting up that kind of oversight for every public official would be incredibly difficult and expensive. Exposing some government positions to identity theft like this creates some pretty serious security concerns. Just exposing the address of a judge could put them at risk.
Government employees way too often forget they are public servants. The public has a right to know their salaries, to record them while they are working, and to expect respect and transparency.
Add comment