The decision made by Democrats on the House Ways and Means Committee to release former President Donald Trump’s tax returns was absolutely in the best interests of Americans, even if their motivations were wrong.

We are cynical that the committee will suddenly use Trump’s taxes as a rallying call for reform to a broken tax system that likely benefits them.

Already, the members of the committee are framing the narrative as though this is a Trump problem and not a tax policy problem.

“Trump acted as though he had something to hide, a pattern consistent with the recent conviction of his family business for criminal tax fraud,” Rep. Don Beyer, said in a news release. “As the public will now be able to see, Trump used questionable or poorly substantiated deductions and a number of other tax avoidance schemes as justification to pay little or no federal income tax in several of the years examined.”

In fact, it is not exclusively a Trump problem. The rot runs deep, and it is codified in a system that has become an unenforceable (dis)honor system for many of the wealthiest.

Gov. Jared Polis’ leaked tax documents showed he was able to use the overly generous and extremely poorly thought out business loss deduction loophole to avoid taxes for years after he lost money in business dealings. Polis showed us his mettle when he turned around and advocated for reforms to the law so that only a portion of business losses could be deducted and capping how many years forward a loss could be carried.

Sen. Michael Bennet blamed the investors managing his accounts for investments that shorted loans to the Puerto Rican government and profited off of the default on those loans. The Daily Beast reported that Bennet has millions in off-shore accounts that are tax havens.

We hope the Trump tax revelations — similar to the tax returns leaked and published by ProPublica over the past couple of years — will motivate voters to make tax reform for the very wealthy a top priority. If releasing Trump’s tax documents leads to a Republican vendetta to release other tax returns of wealthy members of Congress, the White House or even federal courts, then let the light shine on our inequitable taxes. Change will never come without transparency, even if transparency must come in the form of a petty tit-for-tat.

To Trump’s credit, the 2017 Tax Cuts and Jobs Act did make the tax system more equitable, doubling the standard deduction in a recognition that middle-class folks couldn’t abuse itemized deductions to the same offsetting tax effect as rich Americans.

According to The New York Times analysis of the documents released, “Trump reported nearly $16 million in business losses in 2020, which swamped his other income and left him with no federal income tax liability.”

The losses were so great that he will be able to carry some of it forward to avoid taxes in future years. Some carry forward may be reasonable but there is no limit to how long someone could carry such losses.

The bitter divide in Washington could end up bringing Americans closer together as we prioritize putting people in office who are willing to vote against their own personal interests to implement a tax policy that requires everyone to pay their fair share without exception, exemption, privilege or priority.