Bernie appears to be a hypocrite on taxes

[Jim in CT]

Originally Posted by spence

It's not the "exact same thing" that Bernie is doing.

Sanders and his wife are taking the same basic deductions that tens of millions of people use to adjust their tax return.

He's accusing a small number of large corporations of abusing grey areas in the law to achieve massive tax avoidance, or influencing legislators to enable tax avoidance schemes.

It's not the same thing. As an actuarial with a class in religious studies I would have assumed you'd done the math.

"Sanders and his wife are taking the same basic deductions that tens of millions of people use to adjust their tax return."

Oh, I see. So "tens of millions of people" deduct $10,000 for food expenses like Bernie did? Because lord knows, there's no "grey area" when it comes to deciding whether or not a lunch is a 'business lunch'.

"abusing grey areas in the law"

One of his loudest complaints is that CEOs pay a lower effective rate than employees. That's bullsh*t, and you know it. The reason for that, is that wealthy people commonly receive a large share of taxable income from capital gains, which is taxed at a rate lower than wages (and for good reason). There is absolutely nohting grey, murky, or ambiguous about it. The IRS currently works for Chairman Barack, and they have decided that capital gains are to be taxed at a lower rate than wages. In case you can't connect the dots, that necessarily means that someone who gets their income from capital gains, will therefore pay a lower rate than someone who gets all their income from wages.

Is that going sufficiently too fast for you, that you can't grasp it, so you call it "grey"? It's pretty straightforward and intended.

Spence, I seem to recall a President in the late 1990's slashing capital gains tax rates significantly, and if memory serves, he had a (D) after his name, correct? Remember him, a gray-haired pervert? He was married at the time, and sure as hell, I don't recall his wife ever once bitching about her husband cutting capital gains tax rates. I also seem to recall that the economy took off, after those capital gains tax rates were cut. To the point that my golden retriever could have followed his nose into the local Wendys and walked out as an assistant manager. How about that?