Everyone is shocked, shocked to learn that President Trump amassed his fortune not by the sweat of his brow, but rather the old-fashioned way: choosing the right parents and dodging the Internal Revenue Service.
That's certainly the lesson of The New York Times expose this week reporting that Trump received more than $400 million in today's dollars from his father's business empire, some of it through what the Times characterized as criminal tax fraud.
What to do with this information? Beyond all the Trump-specific takeaways — such as, duh, we need to see his tax returns — two much broader policy conclusions shouldn't get lost here:
If you're wondering how Trump was able to duck the tax authorities for so long, given the brazen acts documented by the Times, note that we have basically stopped prosecuting tax crimes and other white-collar offenses.