美国国家公共电台 NPR Activists Plan 'Tax Day' Marches Calling For Release Of Trump's Taxes

DAVID GREENE, HOST:

All right. So we are getting closer and closer to Tax Day. Sorry to break that to you. And Democrats 1 on Capitol Hill are seeming more and more determined 2 to get President Trump 3 to release his tax returns. NPR's Peter Overby reports on some of the strategies these lawmakers are pursuing.

PETER OVERBY, BYLINE 4: All the presidents since Gerald Ford 5 have volunteered to show the public their tax returns - all of them except Donald Trump. He said emphatically that he really wants to do it. This is from a Republican primary debate in February 2016.

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PRESIDENT DONALD TRUMP: Let me just tell you something. I want to release my tax returns, but I can't release it while I'm under an audit 6. We're under a routine audit. I've had it - for years, I get audited 7. And obviously, if I'm being audited, I'm not going to release a return. As soon as the audit is done, I love it.

OVERBY: So here's a way around the audit problem. The president can disclose his new return at the same time he files it before the IRS can start an audit. Democrats have been pounding on the tax return issue.

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BILL PASCRELL: What is he hiding?

OVERBY: That's Bill Pascrell, a Democratic congressman 8 from Paterson, N.J. Democrats on Capitol Hill have different strategies to force Trump's tax returns into the spotlight 9. Pascrell tried last week. His committee chairman, Texas Republican Kevin Brady, wasn't having it.

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KEVIN BRADY: A clear invasion of privacy.

OVERBY: Pascrell's resolution went down on a party-line vote. Reporters asked about Trump's 2016 tax filing at Friday's White House press briefing. Spokesman Sean Spicer sidestepped the question and provided no clear answer. There are two reasons presidents should let the public see their tax returns. Philip Hackney, a former IRS lawyer who now teaches tax law, says there's a higher purpose.

PHILIP HACKNEY: I think it works more towards an open society that I think is important to democracy.

OVERBY: With Trump, Hackney sees a more pragmatic consideration, too.

HACKNEY: I've never seen a situation where we have someone with the conflicts of interest that he has.

OVERBY: And if the returns were made public, Trump's finances would be clearer.

HACKNEY: Both domestically but also internationally.

OVERBY: Speaking of domestic and international, there are anti-Trump tax marches scheduled on Saturday the 15.

DELVONE MICHAEL: Upwards 10 of 80 marches around the nation and four marches in Germany, the U.K., Japan and in New Zealand.

OVERBY: That was Delvone Michael, one of the organizers. He and his fellow marchers will be calling on Trump to disclose his taxes. The president will have three days to mull it over. Tax Day this year's Tuesday the 18. Peter Overby, NPR News, Washington.

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