Should Presidential Candidates Be Required To Make Full Disclosures Prior To Running For Office

As we move closer and closer to the November election date in the US the campaign for president continues to heat up. The polls are bouncing back and forth with Hillary Clinton maintaining a small lead. This week politics and the views of the candidates were sidetracked by medical issue which turned into the week’s hot debate subject. At the 15^th anniversary memorial of the 9/11 terrorist attack Hillary Clinton was discretely rushed off after she looked faint. Here team was quick to announce that she was down with a slight case of pneumonia and became overheated. Within 3 days she was back on the campaign trail but it did not take Donald Trump and his team to turn this event into a political hot potato saying that Hillary Clinton was medically unfit to hold office.

This helped the Donald to sidetrack the public discussions on his economic plans and his immigration programs and his tax returns and hit fitness to hold office. This is the Donald’s modus operandi as the master of the three ring circus and the sleight of hand.

Regardless of where you stand politically, regardless which party you support or which candidate you favor we must first and foremost support the Unites State of America, the office of the President and the people of the United States.

My question is a simple one, when I apply for a job, I am required to provide references, education transcripts, sometimes credit bureau reports and bank statement. Recently some companies have turned to lie detector tests and psychological disclosures. I am required to get finger printed and provide my criminal history. If I a private citizen must go through all of this disclosure to provide transparency to a potential employer, why do not candidates for the most important jobs in the world have to make full disclosure, not at their leisure but as a legal requirement before or when submitting their names to the Federal Election Commission.

A candidate should be required to provide documents such as birth certificate, education credentials, tax returns and should have a full physical conducted by the office of the Surgeon General of the United States. A candidate should have to disclose any and all pending lawsuits in which they are named as well as full financial disclosure. This doesn’t mean for the Federal Election Commission to rate or evaluate this information this means that this data is provided for the public to review when the person submits his name for the highest office in the land.

We have seen lately, Donald Trump hide his tax returns under the guise of an audit, mislead the public on his donations and support for charities, deceive the public on his net worth and lord know what else. He uses these as a shield as he attacks Hillary Clinton, who has been a public servant whose records are a matter of public for many years, as a private businessman, the actions of Donald Trump have not been under a microscope for years as he has never been a public figure outside of his media carnival.

The fact is the next President of the United States and the ones that follow each 4 years after are the most powerful persons in the world. They control the economy, they control the military and they decide the laws of this land. Even though we have separation of power the actions of any president can cause Wall Street to tumble, can cause gold to skyrocket and can at any time bring us to the brink of war.

Don’t you think any person who can vote should be able to review full disclosures about each candidate and not rely on what they say or don’t say. Perhaps if full disclosure was necessary we might have more speeches and debates on real economic issues, real plans and programs to held the poor, to deal with immigration and terrorism. The public debate should be about what a candidate does, stands for and what they believe and how they would lead the United States. Not about their sex, their health, their wealth or taxes or their contributions to charity.