Wednesday, August 08, 2012

BEVAN: ACCUSING SOMEONE OF LEGAL TAX AVOIDANCE IS THE SAME AS ACCUSING SOMEONE OF TREASON

I see that Tom Bevan of Real Clear Politics thinks there's a double standard being applied to recent allegations by Michele Bachmann and Harry Reid. Yes, the percentage of prominent Republicans who have denounced what Bachmann said is somewhat higher than the percentage of Democrats who've denounced Reid.

But here's the difference: Bachmann is suggestion that a top aide to America's secretary of state is guilty of treason. She's hinting that someone high up in the government is guilty of a capital crime. I would hope that most Republicans would have a few shreds of honor left and would seek to rebut her scurrilous charges. By contrast, Reid is saying that Mitt Romney is a clever rich guy who found a way not to pay income taxes for a decade. He isn't even saying that Romney did anything illegal. (Do you think it would be particularly difficult for a person of Romney's wealth to dodge taxes for ten years and do so completely on the up-and-up? I think it would be a piece of cake.) There's a difference between the moral obligation to denounce unsubstantiated allegations of treason and the obligation to denounce allegations of behavior that's just politically embarrassing.

Bevan tells us this:
Only one prominent Republican, Newt Gingrich, defended Bachmann, arguing that she and her colleagues were asking legitimate questions of the U.S. government.
Um, that's true if you don't consider Eric Cantor a "prominent Republican," or Rush Limbaugh, or John Bolton, who's a top adviser to Mitt Romney. That's true if you don't consider the signers of this letter, including former Director of Central Intelligence R. James Woolsey, to be "prominent Republicans." Sorry, Tom, get your facts straight before you get on your high horse.

2 comments:

Philo Vaihinger said...

More on their attitude toward taxes.

Drudge has a giant headline that France is moving its top income tax rate up to 75% lined to a story in the NYT.

Oh those crazy French!

Comments at the Times indicate dismay and confusion.

What if the Galtian wealth creators go on strike?

What if they all flee the country?

Why, without them there to pay people to wash their cars and make their pizza, the French will starve!

It was 70% in the US before the Reagan cuts began.

It was 94% in 1944, per Wikipedia.

Victor said...

Democrats are not expected to fight back.

They're expected to bend over, spread their asscheeks, and let the Republicans have their way with them.

So, any fighting back is like a kick in their nuts.

Some call that treason.