Posted on 04/22/2015 7:43:59 PM PDT by SeekAndFind
Democrats are fond of accusing Republicans of being hypocrites on a variety of issues, but particularly when it comes to tax policy. The liberal comedian Bill Maher recently claimed that Republicans expose themselves to this critique when they champion the value of hard work and perseverance while simultaneously opposing the inheritance tax.
If the tough love of cutting off free money for the poor is the right thing to do, how can we stand by and do any less for the Conrad Hiltons of the world? Theyve never known the dignity of work either, Maher insisted recently. Shouldnt we be helping by taxing inheritance at 100 percent?
Maher seems unaware that the estate tax primarily burdens middle-class Americans and not the truly wealthy who have the wherewithal to avoid that tax by investing in trusts. But Mahers argument wasnt designed to appeal to logic; it was more of a tribal grunt.
But at least Maher was trying to be funny he is, after all, a comedian. By way of contrast, the gaggle of progressive hosts on MSNBC are deadly serious when they issue the oft-repeated charge that the GOPs pro-growth tax policy preferences are interchangeably heartless, selfish, and quite possibly racist.
Regressive taxation & tax-avoidance & union crushing & the financial corruption of legislation has fueled inequality more than hard work, MSNBC host Touré opined on his Twitter account in the winter of last year.
Conservatives complain about takers but most red states get more from DC than they give ie [sic] takers, he later remarked. Most blue states give more than they get.
For all his interest in altruism via tax policy, you would think he might pay his income taxes. Guess again.
In September 2013, New York issued a state tax warrant to [Touré] Neblett and his wife, Rita Nakouzi, for $46,862.68. Six months later, the state issued an additional warrant to the couple for $12,849.87, National Reviews Jillian Kay Melchior reported on Wednesday.
Touré shouldnt feel too bad about his outstanding debt to Uncle Sam. It seems quite a few of his fellow liberal agitators on that network have also failed to pay their taxes.
Last month, New York filed a $4,948.15 tax warrant against Joy-Ann Reid, who serves as managing editor of theGrio.com and until earlier this year hosted MSNBCs The Reid Report, and her husband, Jason, National Reviews report continued. Reid has called taxes on the wealthy a basic fairness argument, also arguing for smart spending and smart tax increases to create economic growth.
Reid and Neblett were perhaps following weekend host and Wake Forrest University Professor Melissa Harris-Perrys example. Earlier this year, the IRS slapped Perry and her husband with a $70,000 bill for delinquent taxes from 2013. As Jazz observed, the fact that she was aware that she owed back taxes for over a year did not stop her from mocking Republicans like Sam Brownback for cutting his states personal tax burden and failing to see it result in booming economic growth.
Filing my taxes, Perry lamented in 2010. Can I just say that with what I owe it is freaking miracle & an act of solidarity that I am still a Democrat? After apparently being subjected to a whirlwind of anger from her liberal fans, Perry recanted. Thanks tweeps for the reminders of how many of you are struggling with unemployment or underemployment. Will pay my taxes with a smile.
But this is all small time. Politics Nation host Rev. Al Sharpton has refined the art of tax dodging to a science. So far, every for-profit enterprise started by Al Sharpton and known to National Review Online has been shut down in at least one jurisdiction for failure to pay taxes, a review of public records in New York and Delaware reveals, National Review reported in February.
Records show that Sharptons beleaguered for-profit entities often overlap and intertwine, some sharing ties with the reverends nonprofit organization, National Action Network. Their financial records are copious, confusing, and sometimes outright bizarre, and together, they depict persistent financial woes for Sharpton, who also personally owes New York State nearly $596,000, according to active tax warrants.
Today, Mr. Sharpton still faces personal federal tax liens of more than $3 million, and state tax liens of $777,657, according to records, The New York Times revealed last November. Raw Talent and Revals Communications owe another $717,329 on state and federal tax liens.
But according to state officials, his balance on the state liens is actually $220,000 greater now than when they were first filed during the years 2008 through 2010. A spokesman for the State Department of Taxation and Finance said state law did not allow him to provide any further details.
You would think that Sharpton would be more cautious about criticizing Republican tax policy given his own indiscretions. You would be wrong.
He specifically talked about tax credits to the middle class. She warmed us all up with the bread bags around her feet, Sharpton said following 2015s State of the Union address and the Republican response delivered by Sen. Joni Ernst (R-IA). He’s not talking about raising taxes for those with the bread bags, he’s talking about raising taxes for the rich. So how do you go from bread bags to defending the top 1 percent not having to pay taxes?”
The irony meter was positively shattered in 2012 when Sharptons network aired a promotional spot in which he decried the GOPs tax policies as so harmful and anachronistic that they are of a piece with Jim Crow laws. It was a time it was acceptable women couldn’t vote and blacks were in the back of the bus, Sharpton insisted. A lot of things were acceptable–until we stopped accepting it.
MSNBCs hosts would be well-served by perusing a dictionary in search of the definition of the word hypocrisy. Apparently, the networks hosts dont exactly practice what they preach when it comes to coughing up their due to the federal government. If anyone was tuning in to that network for the hosts grasp of fiscal policy or stellar ethics rather than a daily dose of confirmation bias, they might have to think twice.
UPDATE: The Washington Free Beacons David Rutz has assembled one of his patented super-cuts featuring the hypocrisy of MSNBCs tax delinquents. Enjoy:
Only white people pay taxes.
Apparently, no one watches MSNBC.
There is no controlling legal authority. Al Gore JR.
MSNBC
There’s no better place to hide.
If they had hired Bin Laden he would still be alive.
I’m relieved to read that Melissa no longer “works” for my alma mater.
Don’t forget ‘Brother Sharpton, who owes over FOUR MILLION in taxes. But he doesn’t have to worry, because he has inside White House connections, see?
When did Mitt Romney get a Show on MSNBC?
Does Harry Reid know about this?
#BlackTaxesCountToo
Bill Maher recently claimed that Republicans expose themselves to this critique when they champion the value of hard work and perseverance while simultaneously opposing the inheritance tax.
uh Dickhead, what’s welfare? It’s an inheritance tax. They don’t work for my money.
Don’t you have a plane to hi-jack.
The United States is corrupt - of course liberal elites and their victim groups get preferred treatment.
The IRS gave Sharpton 10,000 years to pay off his back taxes.. I'm sure they'd do the same for a Tea Party person./s
MSNBC....the tax evasion network
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