Why does the GOP budget calculation focus on punishing tax returns?

Like the Trump The administrative supply to proceed against leakage wants to give the Ministry of Justice even more power for the Republicans of the Ministry of Justice in order to punish an extremely specific way of leaking: Unauthorized disclosures of tax documents that have exposed the creative bookkeeping of the Trump family and wealthy allies such as Elon Musk in recent years.

A provision that would double for 10 years at the end of the massive budget calculation of the GOP on page 1.082-page text on the late Sunday for the course of tax returns to 10 years and increased possible fines from $ 250,000 per violation.

The increase in punishments for leaks seem to be a strange fit for a budget calculation, similar to the recently mixed determination of “non -profit profit killers”. Due to their weak relationship to fiscal affairs, the provisions may not be permitted according to the rules for the Budget reconciliation process of the congress.

Just don't ask the main representative to increase the penalties for tax returns, Republican MP Jason Smith from Missouri, whether these provisions are appropriate.

“I wish I could be helpful, but that's a question for the parliamentarian of the Senate,” said Smith's communication director JP Freire via e -mail.

Last session sponsored an independent bill with identical proposed changes to the Tax Code, which the House of Representatives passed last year, but could not primarily in the Senate. Smith is one of the most important surrogacy of President Donald Trump on the Capitol Hill for the budget bill and also chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee, which contained his proposal for tax records in the department of household law.

Critics are wondering whether increasing prison terms for sources of journalist are the best use of the time of the legislator.

Critics are wondering whether the increasing prison sentence for journalist sources is the best use of the time of the legislator, since the White House works with the Republicans of the house to exceed the Senate budget. The proposal would also increase the criminal punishments for those who “publish in any way”, which are leaked through tax returns, although the prosecutors who want to pursue journalists and outlets immediately after the first change of the Supreme Court according to the Supreme Court.

“Of course, tax information is very sensitive and there are legitimate reasons to protect the financial privacy,” wrote Seth Stern, director of advocacy for the freedom of the Press Foundation, in an e -mail. “But there are also times when it is very up -to -date – for example, when a president has secrets about his finances and business business abroad or when powerful politicians and billionaires withdraw taxation.”

“There is no need to drastically increase existing punishments, which, as far as I know, were largely effective deterrent, apart from cases in which Whistleblower felt forced to uncover their conscience.”

Fixing the Republicans Tax returns and leaks focus on one person: Charles Littlejohn, who guilty in January 2024, to bring Trump's tax returns to the New York Times and a cache with a tax return for thousands of wealthy people to propublica.

In his report, the paths and the Mittelkommittee Littlejohn made the main character last summer and trumped a pitiful victim. During Littlejohn's trial, Republican members of the committee wrote to the federal judge that he spend five years in prison, which is recommended according to the current law instead of 10 months, as recommended by the guidelines of the federal conviction.

Judge Ana Reyes, a bidding candidate, did, as the Republicans Littlejohn proposed and condemned before the five-year maximum, which he is currently addressing.

But Littlejohn was too easy for many Republicans.

“In view of the lack of deterrence created by the law, and the concern that such an unprecedented data injury could lead to such a disproportionate indictment and a punishment, the committee was of the opinion that it was necessary to increase the punishments,” said the committee on Smith's law.

But 10 years are a kind of prison sentence that goes beyond the people convicted of crime, such as sexual abuse materials and certain crimes of firearms, said Christopher A. Wellborn, President of the National Association of Criminal Criminal.

“Do we have to be in prison for up to 10 years?” Asked Wellborn.

“Legislators and judges should concentrate on stopping tax evasion through the rich and powerful.”

During his conviction, Littlejohn's lawyers argued that he had “come out of a deep, moral faith that the American people had the right to know the information and to share that this was the only way to make changes”. But just like the spy law, the leak regulations of the tax code have no defense for public interests.

“The motives of leakage and the question of whether their disclosures serve the well -being of the public should be at least a mitigating factor,” said Stern. “Whistleblowers should not be treated equally like malignant actors. Legislators and judges should concentrate on stopping tax evasion by the rich and powerful, not on disproportionate punishment for whistleblow, which exposes existing law fails.”

The suggestions too Stiffing punishments for tax returns are part of the Republicans' budget law, which is currently progressing through the reconciliation mechanism. Under the so-called “Byrd rule”, named after the late Senator Robert Byrd from West Virginia, matters that are “foreign” for the budget and tax affairs cannot be issued by reconciliation.

At the beginning of this month, the reader determination was assessed as a “negligible” impact on the income by the joint taxation committee.

“This will violate the arguments of the Republicans,” said Bobby Kogan, Senior Director of Federal Budget Policy in the Center for American progress, which has studied reconciliation and Byrd rule that is used by the Senate parliamentarian.

In 2021, for example, the parliamentarian had the Democrats' attempt to increase the minimum wage of the federal government in a Reconciliation Act and decided that the effects of the change in the federal budget were only “unclear” on the underlying political intention that violated the Byrd rule.

All suggestions of the Republican budgetary leak – to increase the maximum penalty, increase the maximum fine, and a third proposal that “clarifies” that each leak represents a separate violation for each taxpayer – according to Kogan, “Byrdable”, in particular, are probably increasing in prison.

“If you condemned a prison sentence, it is punished by crimes, not about changing dollars and cent that come to the government or come from the government,” wrote Kogan. “From the three parts I think that this is least justifiable under Byrd.”

“But if I were the parliamentarian and would do my best to advise based on precedence, I would all three of these mermaids.”