Lawmaker says Trump should release taxes but sides with GOP

The two-term, Des Moines-area lawmaker returned to Washington and sided with the Republican majority late Monday to block a Democratic attempt to force Trump to release his tax returns to Congress. (Photo: Gage Skidmore/ Flickr)

DES MOINES, Iowa –Republican Rep. David Young ignited loud cheers from hundreds at an Iowa meeting last week when he said, “Donald Trump should release his taxes,” calling the move a “no brainer.”

Given the first chance to force the GOP president’s hand, Young passed.

The two-term, Des Moines-area lawmaker returned to Washington and sided with the Republican majority late Monday to block a Democratic attempt to force Trump to release his tax returns to Congress.

Rep. Bill Pascrell, D-N.J., had proposed the resolution directing the House to ask for 10 years of Trump’s tax returns and allow the House Ways and Means Committee to review them in private. Trump broke with most modern-day presidential candidates by refusing to release his tax returns, arguing that he was being audited. However, the IRS has said an audit would not prevent an individual from releasing the returns.

The Republican-controlled House backed Majority Leader Kevin McCarthy’s motion to postpone the resolution indefinitely on a near party-line vote of 229-185.

An aide to Young dismissed Pascrell’s measure, arguing it was not a serious legislative proposal.

Taylor Mason said the congressman “has publicly stated, while there is no legal requirement for the president to release his taxes, he personally believes he should per the longstanding voluntary tradition.”

Mason said Pascrell’s effort “accomplished its intended purpose as a partisan stunt for political gain.”

Last Thursday, under withering questioning from a sometimes angry audience, Young said that Trump releasing his tax returns to the public was a “no brainer.”

It was a well-documented moment for Young, a soft-spoken House member from a competitive congressional district that includes Democratic-leaning Des Moines and the heavily Republican suburbs and rural areas in Iowa’s southeast.

In the contentious meeting during the congressional recess, Young also said a wall along the entire U.S.-Mexican border, a Trump priority, was necessary and that Trump’s senior adviser Steve Bannon’s “ideas aren’t permeating throughout Congress.”

Young was elected to Congress after serving as chief of staff to Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.

Two Republicans who were present did not join the majority in Monday’s vote. Reps. Walter Jones of North Carolina, who often breaks with the GOP, and South Carolina’s Mark Sanford, who has called on Trump to release his taxes, voted present.