An Act Restoring Financial Transparency in Presidential Elections

A hallmark of American democracy has been a steady increase in levels of transparency. And that’s good thing; as Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis once said, “Publicity is justly commended as a remedy for social and industrial diseases. Sunlight is said to be the best of disinfectants; electric light the most efficient policeman.”

In many cases, voluntary disclosures by individuals running for office have become an expectation. But “voluntary” is no guarantee.

Today, I wrote to the Massachusetts Joint Committee on Election Laws in support of S. 365: An Act Restoring Financial Transparency in Presidential Elections. The bill quite simply says one thing: To be on the Massachusetts ballot for President of the United States, you must disclose your three most recent years of tax returns. That’s the least we could ask.

Comments

Post a Comment

Popular posts from this blog

Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets

I have to admit that I spend a lot of time on Zoom these days, and it’s harder to continue that pace of videoconferencing. So I didn’t join a call of Somerville Alliance for Safe Streets (SASS) last night. But, today, I did catch up on SASS’s statement of purpose today and plugged into the outreach process going forward.
Read more

Inauguration Day and the Hill We Climb

Image
Today, I took the afternoon off from work and watched the Joe Biden’s inauguration as the 46th president of the United States. It was the capstone that completed my journey to commit one civic act per day for four years. It’s something that I’ll never forget, just like Amanda Gorman at the ceremony today.
Read more