Mar 8, 2017 2 min read

Last week, several bills were introduced in the U.S. House of Representatives, one asking the House Ways and Means Committee to review President Trump’s tax returns from 2006 to 2015 and report to the House on them; another aimed at preventing conflicts of interest in the executive branch; one exempting the Office of Government Ethics from funding cuts; and the last holding the president to the same level of transparency regarding his personal finances that other federal agencies require.

Given the utter opacity of Trump’s finances, the necessity of good ethics in government, and the frank existence of numerous conflicts of interest in this presidency, how would one account for the astounding lack of curiosity on the part of Republicans about these issues? It ended up being a party-line vote. It’s not that nobody is interested. Only the Republicans are indifferent.

In whose interests does the Republican Party act? Why should this presidency be so thoroughly closed off from scrutiny, given that there is so much that is inimical to ordinary Americans bubbling to the surface, and the general lack of honesty extant in the administration?

Carole McIntyre

Waynesburg