Force Feed Presidents’ & Fams’ Financials?

Has the time come for Presidents’ tax returns & families’ foreign receipts be disclosed prior to an election? After years of probes into the Trump & Biden families, such a bipartisan proposal is being floated by an “unlikely duo” in Congress.

As the WSJ story noted, “A bipartisan pair of influential lawmakers are pushing new rules forcing presidents to make their tax returns public & mandating that family members reveal more financial information.” The proponents are House Oversight Committee Chair James Comer (R, Ky) & Rep Katie Porter, a California Dem on the committee. Their promised bill’s disclosures would cover financials for the two years before a president entered the White House, for the years while in office & for two years afterward. Notably, the bill will contain a “Hunter & Jim Clause” that would not only compel disclosure from children & siblings but in-laws as well. Did we mention big ticket gifts from foreigners and even loans from family members would be disclosable too? Upon hearing about the Comer/Porter proposal, Dem Rep Jamie Raskin (Md) & Sen. Richard Blumenthal (D, Conn) introduced a bill that would also ban a president & federal officials from accepting ANY payments from foreign govts aka “emoluments” without congressional approval, thereby targeting Trump’s $7.8M spent by foreign officials at Trump hotels while in office.

The White House dissed the proposal & Team Trump probably wouldn’t be too keen on the ideas either. Yet, as the story points out, the bill from “ideological opposites” comes after investigations, probes, & possible as well as real prosecutions involving all the players involved. Comer says, “I think we have a good product here” & would especially help quiet ongoing concerns over influence peddling & bribery suspicions. You’d think Biden & Trump would welcome ANYTHING that would help put an end to these endless probes … that is, unless that anything helped trigger even more probes.

Davd Soul