By Stephen D. Foster, Jr. / 10.03.2016
Donald Trump is an unpatriotic loser, says real billionaire Mark Cuban, because true patriots actually pay their damn taxes.
In 1995, the Republican nominee wrote off a $915 million loss on his tax returns in order to get away with not paying any federal income taxes for the next 18 years while he continued to make hundreds of millions of dollars annually.
As we all should know, taxes pay for a lot of the things that make our society great such as police, firefighters, hospitals, the military, roads, education, and many other things that are too numerous to mention. But Trump got to enjoy the benefits of the things taxes pay for without having to contribute a single penny to pay for them. The rest of us, including Hillary Clinton and Mark Cuban picked up that tab.
So Cuban phoned in to CNN on Tuesday, and while he conceded that what Trump did is legal, he proceeded to blast him for failing to explain his actions.
“The key question, after showing a $915 million loss, is how much money does he owe still, who does he owe it to, was that debt forgiven — because if it was forgiven, that’s going to eat up that net operating loss,” Cuban said. “Debt forgiveness is the same as income. He hasn’t explained any of those things in any way, shape or form. That’s a problem.”
Cuban then dinged Trump for not taking personal responsibility for his mistakes and declared that Trump is unfit to be president because of that refusal.
“The problem with Donald Trump and why he’s unfit to be president, is that he won’t own his mistakes. We all make mistakes. I’ve had companies go belly-up. I say it all the time: It doesn’t matter how many times you fail, you only have to be right one time and everybody will tell you how lucky you are. Just own the mistake and explain it. The problem is there’s no transparency, and he won’t own his mistakes, and we don’t want someone like that who’s ashamed of what they’ve done in the business world.”
Being president means the buck stops at your desk, which means Trump can’t blame his underlings for all the bad decisions will likely make as president. We need a president that takes responsibility, not one that makes excuses.
But Cuban continued slamming Trump for referring to himself as a “smart” for not paying taxes.
“That’s just wrong. I say it all the time: After military service, the most patriotic thing you can do as a wealthy person is pay your taxes, because that keeps the roads paved, the military paid and kids going to school. He obviously doesn’t understand the concept.”
Here’s the video via Twitter.
Mark Cuban blasts Donald Trump and calls paying taxes “patriotic” https://t.co/4quP2sIjLU https://t.co/xa3EZNnf3y
— CNN Politics (@CNNPolitics) October 3, 2016