Whhhhhhaaaaaaaaaaat???

House Democrats clamoring for Donald Trump’s tax information have eagerly awaited a newly passed New York law allowing limited access to the president’s state returns.

They’re about to be sorely disappointed.

House Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal would be the only Democrat allowed by the new law to ask for the documents, but so far he has said he won’t do it.

  Bloomberg

For the love of Pete.

Neal has said he fears that getting the state returns would bolster Trump administration arguments that Congress is on a political fishing expedition -- and not, as Neal has claimed, overseeing the Internal Revenue Service’s annual audits of the president.

Which was a stupid goddamn tack in the first place. There are two very good and very important reasons to see Trump's tax returns: 1) to determine if his financial situation leaves him open to blackmail (a typical reason people can be denied a security clearance - or could before the Trump administration), and 2) to investigate possible money laundering.

One thing I'll agree with him about: Democrats are Losers.

“Yes, absolutely, we need to ask” for the New York returns, said Representative Pramila Jayapal of Washington State, who co-chairs the House Progressive Caucus. “We need to know. There is an emoluments clause and a Constitution for a reason.”

The U.S. Constitution’s emoluments clause prohibits the president from profiting from his office. The fact that Trump did not divest from the Trump Organization when he was elected has raised suspicions that could be answered by reviewing his returns.

That, too.

“At this moment in time Chairman Neal has taken this position, but we’ll see how he decides to proceed in the face of continued obstruction from the administration,” Representative Hakeem Jeffries, the No. 5 Democrat in the House, said in an interview with Bloomberg News Wednesday. “That may cause the chairman of the Ways and Means Committee to change his mind.”

Maybe YOU ought to try to change his mind, Hakeem.

“Whatever it takes to get it -- I’m for it,” said House Financial Services Committee Chairwoman Maxine Waters, a California Democrat. “I believe that the president of the United States should follow the tradition of other presidents and reveal his tax returns.”

[...]

Neal has asked Treasury Secretary Steven Mnuchin three times for six years of Trump’s federal personal and business returns, citing a 1924 law that allows the chairmen of the congressional tax committees to ask and requires the Treasury secretary to provide them. When Mnuchin refused the request three times, Neal followed with a subpoena but that, too, was rejected. The battle is expected to end up in court.

Loser.

The House committee chairmen who have jurisdiction over various Trump probes, including Neal, Judiciary Chairman Jerrold Nadler of New York and Oversight Chairman Elijah Cummings of Maryland, have made agreements with each other defining who controls which investigation.

Only House Speaker Nancy Pelosi, who has been focused on winning court battles related to the investigations, can persuade Neal to pursue the New York option.

Don't hold your breath.

...but hey, do what you want...you will anyway.