Breaking News: Clinton Clearly Promises to Produce Full Tax Returns Next Week

In a lengthy and wide-ranging telephone press conference today called by Hillary Clinton Communications Director Howard Wolfson, Deputy Communications Director Phil Singer, and Policy Director Neera Tanden, I asked the following question:

I’ve seen reports that Senator Clinton will be producing some kind of financial information next week, but the details have been a little vague. Will Senator Clinton be producing her complete 2000 through 2006 tax returns, including all schedules, next week?

Wolfson responded:

Sen Clinton said ... that she would be producing her tax returns within the week, and we are endeavoring to do just that. And as to – I’m not fully conversant enough to know what the distinction is between schedules and other tax information, so I don’t want to give you an answer that is incorrect, but I am quite confident that all of the information that the public needs and that reporters need to make very, very informed judgments about their finances will be made available.... [O]f course they have filed annual financial disclosure forms while Senator Clinton was in the Senate that details [sic] the sources of their income, and obviously tax returns will provide additional information, and I am confident that you and others will have ample opportunity to look at them and if you have followup questions of course we’ll be available to answer them, but I am quite confident that all information that is necessary to make very good judgments about their finances will be made available.

I asked a followup:

Scanning and posting tax returns is a fairly simple process. Why is there any delay at all in making her returns available?

Wolfson responded:

You know, why was there delay in Senator Obama’s making his returns available....? You know, we’ll have them within the week, you’ll have an opportunity to look at them, you can turn a skeptical eye to them as you may care to and if you have followup questions about them we’ll be happy to answer them, but they’ll be available online.... and people will be able to take a look at them.

I admit it: I’m a cynic. I saw no news reports or press releases in which Clinton herself promised to produce tax returns next week – but maybe it just wasn’t publicized. I still don’t understand why it takes more than 24 hours to have a staffer scan and post tax returns; some bloggers and commentors have articulated fears that the Clintons are using this time to have their returns doctored, and while I don’t share those fears, posting the returns immediately after Obama did would have snuffed out any such speculation. It also strikes me as a little funny that someone as well-informed and sophisticated as Wolfson doesn’t know what tax schedules are – they’re simply the attachments that go with the Form 1040 whenever a taxpayer itemizes his or her deductions or has investment income, as the Clintons (and Wolfson) certainly do. And the length and repetitiveness of his answer makes me mindful of the Queen’s comment in Hamlet: “the lady doth protest too much, methinks.” As one person has exegised the line, “[s]omeone who is telling the truth [usually does so] ... rather plainly and shortly. Someone who is assuring too much is usually lying either to herself or to the audience”– ie, it implies that “the lady” “will break her word.”

But I’m tired of being cynical, and I’m going to trust that the lady’s word is good. I’m looking forward to next week, when we’ll all know exactly how good it is.

To those who encouraged Clinton to do the right thing by participating in the “Tax Fax” grassroots campaign (outlined on both The Huffington Post and VichyDems) by faxing copies of their own tax returns, with personal info deleted, to Clinton’s campaign offices – you can stand down. THANK YOU, and GOOD WORK!
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Activism You Can Do: Help Clinton Produce Her Tax Returns By Sending a “Tax Fax”

UPDATE, 3/27: STAND DOWN! In a Clinton press conference today, I asked her Communications Director, Howard Wolfson, whether Clinton would produce all her returns next week. He promised she would. I take him at his word. Stop faxing (unless you want to send a one-pager saying "Thank you!") -- and check back here next week when we'll see what exactly shows up. GREAT WORK, AND THANK YOU!!

UPDATE, 3/26: No additional fax numbers yet. Thanks!
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Hillary Clinton, who claims to be “the most transparent” politician in America, isn’t. There’s a long history of her withholding documents relating to her personal history, her days as First Lady, and her financial records (for instance, why did she wait until after the important primary in NAFTA-hating Ohio to release her daily schedules as First Lady, which show all the work she did to help NAFTA pass?) (For those who are interested, I'll add more detail about Barack Obama’s unusual frankness and transparency, and Clinton’s lack of it, at the bottom of this post as soon as I can.)

Today the issue is tax returns. It’s become customary for Presidential candidates to release copies of their returns so voters can see how they’ve made their money -- and who they might owe favors to.

Barack Obama released his tax returns to the media a year ago. Today he went even further and posted all his returns from 2000 forward on his campaign website. You can get .pdfs of them here.

But Hillary Clinton – who is rich enough that she’s personally loaned at least $5 million to her own campaign to keep it afloat – hasn’t produced any tax returns since her husband left office. That’s seven years during which she and Bill went from being civil servants to becoming incredibly wealthy – yet she won’t tell the public where her newly-acquired millions came from. (At first, she ignored the issue. Then, she said she wouldn't produce them until she actually received the nomination. Next, she said she would produce them sometime "around" April 15. Now, she's agreed to produce something tax-wise, but not until 3 days before the Pennsylvania primary on April 22 -- nearly a month away, and not leaving Pennsylvania voters much time to really thing about any issues her returns might raise -- and won't say exactly what she'll provide: for instance, will it be just the 1040s, or also the schedules and attachments that contain the actual details?)

A more cynical person than me might suspect those tax returns contain something Clinton would rather hide -- but Senator Clinton has a simpler explanation.

Why hasn’t she done what every other candidate has done, and made copies of her tax returns available early enough to make a difference? Because, she claims, "I'm a little busy right now" – as if she personally needs to rummage through her filing cabinet, run to Kinko’s, and look up the fax number for the Associated Press.

Personally, I think it's easier to photocopy a tax return than Clinton thinks. In fact, since 2007's returns are due in less than a month, everyone in America has just finished, or soon will be, filling out, copying (for their own files), and sending off a tax return. In other words, we’re all doing exactly what Clinton claims she “doesn’t have time” to do!

So here’s an idea: LET’S ALL SHOW HILLARY HOW EASY IT IS, BY SENDING HER COPIES OF OUR OWN TAX RETURNS. It’s ridiculously simple:

1. Grab this year’s tax return, and some past years’ returns too if they’re handy, and copy them.

2. Take a Sharpie and black out any personal information like your name, social security number, etc. – we don’t want any identity theft!

3. Scribble a brief note, maybe in huge Sharpie letters on the first page of your return, saying something like: “Hey, Hil: if I can do this, so can you. Please produce your 2000-2006 returns NOW.”

4. Fax to one of Clinton’s campaign offices. (I say fax, not mail, because all mail to Senators has to be screened for anthrax before it’s opened.)

That’s it! Grassroots activism at its best (and simplest!). Again: photocopy, Sharpie, note, fax – and you’re a “netboots” activist (informed by the Internet, but taking action, "boots on the ground"). Feel good? It should!

Here are three important guidelines to make sure you’re just sending a message, not harassing or interfering with her campaign:

1. Please keep your cover note polite and to the point.

2. Don’t send faxes to Clinton’s official Senate offices (either in D.C. or in New York); those numbers are for her real work, and we don’t want to interfere with that in any way.

3. Do your best to fax a local campaign office, not the national one. That way, the load will be spread among many fax machines, rather than jamming up a few important ones and making them unusable for campaign business. Again: we’re sending a message, not doing a dirty trick by jamming her lines.

Contact information for Clinton’s various campaign offices can be found on her website’s “States” page. If her local campaign office shows a telephone number but not a fax number, give them a call and ask politely what their fax number is (and please share that info in the comments section of this post so others in your area can use it). If her website doesn’t give any local information for your state (e.g., she has lots of info for Pennsylvania, where she expects to win, and none for North Carolina, where she doesn’t), then you don’t have much choice, and need to use one of her other numbers. Only for those who don’t have a local office to telephone or fax to, here are some fax numbers you can try:

National Campaign Headquarters (Virginia): 703-962-8600
Pennsylvania Headquarters: 215-625-0379
New York Headquarters: 212-213-3041

If I can get more fax numbers to spread things out, I’ll post them here -- so please check back if the numbers above get too busy.

Thanks for playing “help the candidates be transparent!” – and let us know how it goes!

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