To: President Donald Trump
Publish a ghost budget in which the costs of tax deductions are itemized and reported like any ot...
Publish what the total federal tax income would be if everybody paid their presumptive fair rate on unadjusted gross income, and then list all the "deductions" and "reductions" as expenditures.
These expenditures are not wrong; keeping them hidden is.
This "Ghost Budget" could be done with no act of Congress, just a bemused report from the President's Office would do. An identical petition is available on the White House Petitions page where it may also be signed: http://wh.gov/UAA4
These expenditures are not wrong; keeping them hidden is.
This "Ghost Budget" could be done with no act of Congress, just a bemused report from the President's Office would do. An identical petition is available on the White House Petitions page where it may also be signed: http://wh.gov/UAA4
Why is this important?
Fairness and clarity will best be served by treating income adjustments, tax breaks and exemptions like any other government expenditure. Political tricksters and hired poets use language to make the tax deductions for business lunches seem very different from government payments to help the poor feed themselves. Or to make deductible mineral exploratory costs very different from payments to support education.