Media’s Thumb on the Scale on Issue of Candidates’ Taxes

After jostling between the candidates during Sunday night’s debate in St. Louis, Missouri over the issue of the day, “Who was the worse abuser of women, Donald Trump, or Bill and Hillary Clinton?,” the debate turned to the issue of Trump’s taxes. While Trump acknowledged that he used the tax laws to pay as little in taxes as required by law, he reminded Hillary that some of her big supporters, such as George Soros and Warren Buffett, do the same. In fact, most everyone pays as little in taxes as is legally required. And why shouldn’t they? But Trump missed an opportunity to land a more direct hit on Hillary for tax-avoidance maneuvers that the Clintons engage in, both through their foundation, and beyond. The media continue their reporting frenzy based on speculation about Trump’s tax returns and whether he has paid federal income tax in the last 20 years. The Clinton campaign has jumped on the bandwagon, publishing a Donald Trump tax “calculator” which calculates a visitor’s tax contribution as zero dollars. It is obviously meant to mock Mr. Trump. “While millions of American families, including mine and yours, were working hard and paying their fair share…it seems he was contributing nothing to our nation,” said Hillary Clinton on the campaign trail. Similarly, NBC’s Chuck Todd said on Meet the Press on October 2 that “this is basically a deduction that benefits wealthy businessmen. He failed at his businesses. Those first three businesses were failures. And then he was able to get a tax break for that failure on the next billion dollars of income. Look, it’s all legal. Should it be?” Todd also said that Trump had exploited a tax “loophole.”

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