Should all candidates - for every position, President, Congress, and so forth, including positions like Mayor and School Board, make public their tax return for the last three years? And make public the tax return of their spouse, if they have one?
This would be wonderful!
Yes, all have a right to privacy, and no one has a need to disclose their tax return. This right to privacy should be strongly defended.
But if you want to hold public office, want to run for public office and have the public trust, to act for the public and in the public interest, then the trade off is tax-return disclosure. This disclosure is medicine for the problems with governmental officials which we have had in recent years.
Public disclosure of who and what the candidates are is revealed in how they have acted, and this disclosure reveals what they might do if they get into office.
This tax return disclosure should be ongoing while they are in office - so we can see areas where having the trust of the public, and acting in the public interest, might bump up against areas of potential problems - and then do what is called for to avoid those problems.
We know that many elected officials become much richer after they are in office for a while - and it is not from their governmental salaries.
All Candidates for all Elected Positions Make 3 Years of Tax Returns Public !
And this should include the returns of their spouses, if those tax returns are separate.
(c) 2012 Elihu Genmyo Smith
