Taxes

The Takeover of Grift

My Taxes

After DOGE depleted IRS, tax returns have been reviewed by AI. I recently received a tax due that wildly misrepresented my return: e.g., they said I reported a taxable income of -$8000, where in fact I reported $48,332, after deductions, on line 15, 1040. Nearly every line they documented was off by an equal proportion, e.g., they said I had reported $0 from social security whereas I had reported $23,436. It almost seemed as if IRS AI had been looking at a different return; either that or it had swallowed LSD.

I wonder whether my notice was an isolated incident or a more nefarious project organized against registered democrats--my conspiracy theory of the moment but not entirely irrational. My bet is that because of similar AI hallucinations, there has been a notable uptick in notices to Democrats like the one I received.

My more serious irritation is that the Department of Justice (deep irony) determined that Trump and the Trump family are protected from any kind of tax inquiry on taxes filed before May 19, 2026. I would like to think that even my friends who still support Trump understand this exemption is a clear violation of equal justice: that all citizens are subject to the same law: that you do not cheat on your taxes.

Trump has been cheating on his taxes for decades—google the criminal convictions of tax fraud by his companies. We know that for most of the past several years, he has paid close to zero taxes: e.g., $750 in 2016 and 2017, zero in 2018, the years for which we have any reports (Tax Policy Center). We can assume that he has followed that pattern since then, in spite of massive gains in wealth. In his first year as President, he doubled his net worth, an increase of approximately $3 billion, largely because of his pay-to-play through his crypto currency scheme. Because of his tax immunity, you can bet he will pay either zero in taxes or claim a refund of something like 1.7 million.

Trump’s case is far from unusual. The billionaire class tends to believe taxes are for suckers (see the Panama Papers, Paradise Papers, Deutsch Bank). There are exceptions, people like Warren Buffett, but they are rare. Research published in ProPublica shows that the richest 25 Americans pay 3.4% of their income and gain. Including Medicare taxes, I pay over 20%.

Since Citizens United, billionaires rather than paying taxes have poured their resources into politicians who will support lower taxes for their socio-economic class. I suspect they imagine those donations as their taxes—although more likely, they think in terms of a profit margin: five million spent on candidate support will result in a fifteen million tax reduction. The consequence of regressive tax policies since President Reagan’s 1981corporate tax cut has been skyrocketing income inequality, the average income of the top 0.1% as a multiple of the bottom 90% skyrocketing from 47 times to 196 times in 2018—the last year data was available on inequality.org. From 1979 to 1922, the richest 0.01 percent of households had an income growth rate of 628%, compared to the 60% growth rate for the bottom 50% (Congressional Budget Office). We are now at the same inequality as we were in the era of the robber barons.

Currently, the top three to eight wealthiest individuals own as much as the lowest 50% (Forbes). That’s serious economic inequality, the highest among developed countries (Inequality.org).The United States has the highest level of economic inequality among all advanced, high-income democracies in the OECD. While it is one of the wealthiest nations globally, its wealth and income gaps are more extreme, aligning closer to levels seen in developing nations, compared to peer countries like Canada, Germany, and France. [1, 2, 3]

I understand that the billionaire class dominates political action. This economic domination is a continuation of the divine rights of Kings. I doubt that those of us in the middle and working classes will get even an approximation of equal voice until we overturn Citizens United, which probably won’t happen until economic inequality outshouts political rhetoric—if then. It’s quite possible that the billionaire class—or soon, the trillionaire class, will by then have gained full control of the government.

I also deeply resent how my taxes are being spent. I am perfectly willing to contribute 15-20% of my income to invest in projects that contribute to our infrastructure, protect us from economic predators, protect the environment, provide for the disadvantaged, and support social and educational projects. I however resist paying taxes to destroy the White House architecture and put in its place an architecturally obscene ballroom ($300 million of tax dollars—remember how Mexico would pay for the wall?), to pay for an idiotic war with Iran (c. 130 billion), Trump’s birthday party (45 million), and his monumentally insane reflecting pool project—a no-contract bid to one of his Mara-Lago neighbors for 16 million, which made a bad problem worse.

I have close friends who are MAGAnites to the end of the road. Even this pool debacle has not shuddered their allegiance to a clear malignant narcissist. On the Facebook group, Take Back Virginia, there are multiple posts claiming that vandals (communists) have poured in algae-producing chemicals and cut the 250 ft—350ft American blue reflecting bottom with knives, a narrative confirmed by the National Park Service, in spite of 24-hour monitoring of the pool and platoons of National Guards protecting the Trump project and declarations threatening anyone who puts their fingers in the pool with life-sentences. I am sorry, but really, how stupid can you get?

I haven’t pushed my friends on their support of the algae pool narrative. I wonder how far this Trump worship will go, whether they will support Trump if he shoots someone on Fifth Avenue. I cannot imagine what they see in Trump. They are good people. Trump is not. I am struggling to reconcile the disconnect.

I wonder whether I have gone down this deep hole for other presidents. The closest I can think of was Jimmy Carter. Compare Jimmy Carter to Donald Trump and you have the game.

CORRUPTION SEE NYT