Suzanne Potter
California News Service
LOS ANGELES – Big crowds of protesters took to the streets in a dozen California cities this past Saturday April 15th, and in hundreds of sister marches across the nation. They demanded that President Donald Trump release his income-tax returns, as Americans prepare to file theirs by the deadline on Tuesday April 18th.
Before the election, then-candidate Trump promised to release the returns but then reneged, claiming voters don’t care that much about what’s in them.
Delia Brown, co-organizer of the Los Angeles march, disagrees. She says the public deserves transparency and accountability from the White House.
“We think that there are conflicts of interest that would be exposed,” she said. “We know from his sons’ assertions that he has a lot of business dealings with Russia, but we have no way of knowing what they are or how deep they go.”
More than 22,000 people registered to attend the L.A. event, which included a rally in Pershing Square and then a march to City Hall, accompanied by a 13-foot balloon likeness of a chicken with Mister Trump’s hairstyle, nicknamed “Chicken Don.”
Brown says at the marches, speakers will call for tax fairness, measures to fight income inequality, and a constitutional amendment to overturn the Supreme Court’s Citizens United decision, that allows corporations to contribute vast sums to political campaigns without full disclosure.
“What the people desire doesn’t stand a chance next to the big money that corporations have to push their agendas forward,” she added. “The American people’s voice is lost as soon as corporations are allowed to have great influence over who is elected, and what kinds of legislation is passed.”
The marchers are also pressing for an investigation into whether President Trump continues to profit from income streams tied to foreign powers, which would be a violation of the Emoluments Clause of the Constitution.
Mmore information can be found online, at Tax March.org.
