Rep. Don Beyer Profile picture
Sep 28, 2020 12 tweets 5 min read Read on X
Donald Trump is a liar and a cheat.

He paid less in personal income taxes – just $750 some years, $0 in others – than most working Americans, all while living the lavish lifestyle of a billionaire.

But this story is very important beyond those headline details. Here’s why. 1/
It isn’t just that Trump pays a tiny tax burden and writes off dubious luxury expenses to live like a robber baron. His signature legislation with Republicans in Congress was making the tax code even friendlier to the ultra-rich.

They rigged the system to be *less* fair.
2/
Yes, Donald Trump is a freeloader who has no idea what the struggles of working people are like, but he is also making things worse for them.

There are people near the poverty line in this country paying more taxes than Trump — and he is trying to take their health care away. 3/
People across this country are hurting badly as the economy bleeds jobs and millions face eviction, food insecurity, or the loss of health coverage.

Tax dodger Trump is keeping them from getting economic assistance because his negotiators think that aid might be too generous. 4/
And this is a corruption story.

Increasingly financially dependent on his brand, Donald Trump has grossly abused the power of his office to promote his personally-branded businesses and pour taxpayer funds into his own pockets.
5/
In need of money, Trump has rolled back regulations on corporations who bankrolled his campaign.

And he gave unprecedented direct influence over policy to people who paid him, including Mar-A-Lago members who got enormous influence over the Department of Veterans’ Affairs. 6/
Trump’s debts make this a national security story.

Whom does Donald Trump owe money too? What has he done or might he be doing now using his powers to help them, or to acquire money to pay them back?

Donald Trump purposefully hid this information from the American people.
7/
As his properties and investments overseas lost money, Trump turned to foreign investors and governments for cash.

These unconstitutional emoluments are a huge problem. The President is supposed to put the country first, but Trump conducts foreign policy to benefit himself. 8/
Many of my constituents have to undergo long, arduous processes to obtain a security clearance for work.

With his debts, his foreign dealings, and the massive leverage others hold over him, Trump could not get a security clearance if he sought it as a private citizen.
9/
While we are on the topic of security clearances, Jared Kushner and Ivanka Trump should not have them.

This story makes it clearer than ever that neither of them should have been allowed to hold a position of influence at the White House. 10/
Trump responded to this reporting by whining that the IRS treats him badly, an absurd lie.

In fact, the IRS refused to comply with our @WaysMeansCmte subpoena and withheld his tax returns despite the clear language of the law that they “shall be furnished” upon our request. 11/
The New York Times’ story is a damning indictment of Donald Trump’s character, but its details are also a damning indictment of his presidency.

If it is untrue, Trump could prove all of this false whenever he wants, very easily. So why doesn’t he release his tax returns?
12/12

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More from @RepDonBeyer

Oct 22
Can we talk about how awful Trump's presidency was? It can be easy to forget. Some might want to forget, but day after day there was a new crisis at the expense of the American people.

We need a reminder, so I’m breaking down some of his worst moments in this thread:
Trump collaborated with Russian efforts to interfere in our elections to help him win, lied about it, refused to endorse American intelligence confirming it, and then fired FBI Director James Comey to kill the investigation.

Just a shameless disregard for American democracy. Image
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As President, he pressured Ukraine to interfere in our elections and then blocked Congress from obtaining key evidence in an attempt to cover it up.

This led to the House’s first impeachment of Donald Trump for abuse of power and obstruction of Congress. Image
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Read 16 tweets
Apr 3
A few days ago the largest the Republican Study Committee, which counts 4 in 5 House Republicans as members, issued a new budget that seeks a massive transformation of American society. Their proposed changes are a blueprint for a dystopian hellscape. 1/
beyer.house.gov/news/documents…
What's in this Republican budget? It's here if you want to read it for yourself:


We took a closer look at the policy changes they proposed and legislation they endorsed, and documented what it means with citations, which follow below-- 2/hern.house.gov/uploadedfiles/…
It would wreck the American health care system for seniors, children, and everyone in between.

They'd turn Medicare into a voucher program, raise Medicare costs and drug costs, gut the ACA and its coverage guarantee for preexisting conditions, and slash Medicaid and CHIP. 3/ Image
Read 8 tweets
Jun 16, 2023
This was quietly a big week in the U.S. House. Some developments with major implications for the future--

1) The largest group of House Republicans issued its FY24 budget, calling for Social Security cuts for regular people and tax cuts for the wealthy:
2) House Republicans advanced a new tax cut law, aka the "GOP Tax Scam 2.0."

The bill would cut taxes for corporations and the wealthy, and increase the deficit -- right after Republicans spent months threatening to wreck the economy to extract cuts.
3) Far right MAGA Republicans took control of the House floor, shutting down votes and refusing to end their blockade unless Speaker Kevin McCarthy broke his debt deal with President Biden:
nytimes.com/2023/06/06/us/…

4) Which McCarthy promptly agreed to do:
Read 4 tweets
Apr 14, 2023
We just passed 100 days since the beginning of the 118th Congress, and things are not going well for the Republican majority in the House.

They've struggled to pass legislation, craft a budget, or agree on priorities. And now their leaders are openly fighting with each other.🧵
You remember how it started: the extreme right of the GOP conference denied Kevin McCarthy support in vote after vote, inflicting brutal humiliation on him and plunging the House into chaos not seen in over 150 years, since before the Civil War Image
When it finally ended on the 15th ballot, McCarthy was all smiles. But then it emerged that he had made secret deals with far right Republicans that effectively bargained away much of the power of his speakership, leaving him in a precarious position.

That colored what followed. Image
Read 15 tweets
Apr 13, 2023
If true, the reported existence of a hidden financial relationship between a conservative donor and a Justice of the U.S. Supreme Court is inexcusable and unacceptable.

Justice Thomas should resign.
I have not previously called for Justice Thomas' resignation and do not do so lightly now. He has shown a clear pattern of disregarding ethics rules and hiding conflicts of interest, and is failing to meet the ethical standards to which our highest public officials should be held
Today the Supreme Court faces a crisis of public confidence, a crisis Justice Thomas helped create.

Faced with the choice to take the ethical high road by recusing himself from cases due to conflicts of interest, Thomas always fails to do the right thing.
Read 6 tweets
Apr 2, 2023
House Republican leaders say they will try to defund the police in response to the criminal indictment of Donald Trump
I've been warning about this before last year's midterm, as the MAGA Republican faction in the House eyed a little-known procedural mechanism which they want use to interfere with law enforcement investigations of Trump:
As I wrote in the @BulwarkOnline, the narrow Speaker election gave the extreme MAGA faction huge leverage over McCarthy, which they hope to use in spending matters -- including by using the purse strings to interfere with criminal investigations of Trump
Read 5 tweets

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