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发帖数: 29846 | 1 Class warfare is a sucker play.
by John Hayward04/17/2012
The Daily Caller tells us that DNC chair Debbie Wasserman-Schultz (D-FL) has
canceled a big-bucks fundraiser she planned with a top Obama 2012
fundraiser, because another of the Democrats’ airheaded narratives is
threatening to blow up in their faces:
Marjorie Rawls Roberts, who has pledged to raise between $100,000 and $200,
000 for Obama’s 2012 campaign, helps her wealthy clients navigate offshore
tax loopholes in the U.S. Virgin Islands. Last Thursday, the Daily Caller
revealed that Roberts’ clients include recently convicted $7 billion Ponzi
schemer R. Allen Stanford and alleged financial criminals from the National
Rural Utilities Cooperative Finance Corporation.
Wasserman Schultz was scheduled to appear with Roberts at 8 a.m. on Monday
morning at an “Obama Victory Fund 2012” event — advertised as “Breakfast
with DNC Chair, Congresswoman Debbie Wasserman Schultz” at “Walker’s by
the Sea” in Lindberg Bay on St. Thomas.
So a big Obama donor made her fortune helping rich financial crooks exploit
the kind of tax breaks President Obama spends his every waking moment
whining about! An earlier article at the Daily Caller described the awesome
“tax fairness” achievements of Roberts, who is also a big supporter of
class-warfare blowhard Rep. Charlie Rangel (D-NY):
Roberts helped recently convicted $7 billion ponzi schemer R. Allen Stanford
with his application for tax benefits from the U.S. Virgin Islands Economic
Development Corporation. Those benefits permit recipients to avoid paying
some — or all — of their taxes, as long as they live in the U.S. territory
for the majority of a given tax year and fulfill certain financial and
development obligations to the local economy.
The Virgin Islands Daily News reported that Stanford applied for those tax
breaks in 2006, and that the territory’s current governor, Democrat John de
Jongh, approved the application after taking office in 2007.
Stanford, who was convicted of defrauding 30,000 of his investors with bogus
investments in his Antiguan bank while living a lavish lifestyle from the
spoils of his scheme, owes hundreds of millions in back taxes. In early 2009
, the Associated Press reported that the federal government placed four tax
liens against Stanford, totaling about $212 million, between 2007 and 2008.
It’s probably a total coincidence, but Rep. Rangel was pushing legislation
that “would have limited the U.S. tax agency’s authority to investigate
and audit potential tax criminals enrolled in the U.S. Virgin Islands EDC
program.” And Roberts is presently engaged in helping a company “at the
center of a major financial crime scandal” involving the governor of the U.
S. Virgin Islands to collect some juicy tax benefits.
Shortly after the Daily Caller exposed Roberts’ resume, Wasserman-Schultz
abruptly decided that doing a fundraiser with her might not be such a hot
idea after all. The Congresswoman’s office claims the decision to cancel
was made “at least a week ago,” but cannot advance any evidence to support
that claim. The only documentation of the cancellation was a Facebook post
from Roberts, which said only that the Wasserman-Schultz appearance would
be “postponed.” Amusingly, this Facebook post was subsequently yanked
from public view.
Matt Boyle at the Daily Caller checked Obama’s campaign website Monday
morning, and found the Wasserman-Schultz appearance in the U.S. Virgin
Islands was still listed. I checked at 8:30 AM Tuesday morning, and it’s
still there. Tickets range from $500 general admission to $2,500 per couple
for “hosts.”
Roberts has also been tearing down photos of herself with President Obama,
but of course the memory of the Internet is without pity. Here’s a lovely
shot of the offshore tax loophole queen in the arms of a grinning Barack
Hussein Obama, scourge of “tax loopholes” for those who “don’t pay their
fair share.” Marjorie Roberts is the one on the right:
It’s hard to understand why Wasserman-Schultz would give the cold shoulder
to such an enthusiastic donor. After all, the Obama Administration is
positively riddled with tax cheats. The L.A. Times found 41 of them in 2010
, and cited a Washington Post report that “Capitol Hill employees owed $9.3
million in back taxes” from the previous year.
Roberts’ favorite Congressman, Tribune of the People Charles Rangel, was
censured by the House for financial improprieties, including 17 years of
cheating on his taxes. The Democrat Party rose as one to give Rangel a
standing ovation after his censure.
Warren Buffett, the patron saint of millionaire surtaxes, has been fighting
like a wildcat to avoid paying a billion dollars in back taxes. A unit of
Buffett’s Berkshire Hathaway firm was just sued by the federal government
for $366 million in taxes and penalties. What does this company deal in?
Wait for it, wait for it…
… corporate jets!
And when it came time to hand out goodies from Obama’s gigantic pork-
encrusted “stimulus” bill, tax cheats were lined up with their hands out.
The Government Accountability Office found that $24 billion in “stimulus”
loot was disbursed to companies owing a total of $757 million in back taxes
. Tax-delinquent companies “accounted for nearly 6 percent” of Recovery
Act grantees, according to the Associated Press. One firm got $100,000
Obama bucks even though they owed $6 million in back taxes.
Class-war Democrats, including the President himself, don’t seem shy about
taking advantage of those evil “loopholes” they endlessly complain about.
Just as nothing in the law prevents a guilt-riddled millionaire from paying
extra taxes, nothing in the law compels them to take deductions. They
could simply pay the total tax rate on their gross income, and take a round
of applause for their bold leadership. But they don’t, because class
warfare is entirely about power. It has nothing to do with fiscal sanity,
as you can see from the President’s monomaniacal obsession with a new
minimum tax that would fund his government for 11 hours per year, and
require over half a millennium to pay off one year of Obama deficit spending.
Obama’s class warfare routine is a sucker play, and you’re an utter fool
if you believe a minute of it. The well-connected have done very well under
this tax-hungry President. He wants to punish his enemies and squeeze
votes out of the gullible masses with his “man of the people” routine, not
pay his debts. Despite all the attacks on “millionaires and billionaires,
” the true revenue target for Big Government is the middle class,
especially small business owners, because that mighty host of smaller
targets is less agile when it comes to evading high nominal tax rates.
“Soak the rich” rhetoric is primarily an instrument to soften up the
middle class for their inevitable fleecing. When your taxes are raised –
by a mournful cadre of socialists who tell you how very sorry they are, but
something simply must be done to close those huge federal deficits, pay for
everyone’s health care, invest in a future that’s “built to last,” and
so forth – you won’t be nipping off to the Virgin Islands to look for
shelters.
Obama shouldn’t be running away from Marjorie Rawls Roberts. He should
announce her as his next Treasury Secretary.
John Hayward is a staff writer for HUMAN EVENTS, and author of the recently
published Doctor Zero: Year One. He is a regular guest on the Rusty
Humphries radio show. Follow him on Twitter: Doc_0. Contact him by email at
j******[email protected]. |
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