I know it’s really, really, REALLY trite to ask this but let’s do it anyway:
Just suppose Barack Obama or Joe Biden or a Democrat in a tight Congressional race had stashed lots of money offshore and didn’t have to pay American taxes. Would Republican partisans look the other way? And — a bigger question — would Republican partisans argue, why, it’s as American as apple pie?
Now, once you get your real, honest, no-spin truthful answers read this:
Mitt Romney shouldn’t be criticized for using off-shore tax havens because “it’s really American to avoid paying taxes, legally,” Sen. Lindsey Graham (R-S.C.) said Tuesday.
The presumptive GOP presidential nominee has come under fire for stashing assets overseas in places like Bermuda and Switzerland.
Graham argued that Congress is responsible for tax avoidance because it has crafted such convoluted rules and said he was fine with Romney’s taking advantage of the loopholes.
“As long as it was legal, I’m OK with it,” Graham said. “I don’t blame anybody for using the tax code to their advantage. I blame us for having it so complicated and confused. Pick a rate and make people pay it.”
In the meantime, anything within the rules goes, he argued.
“It’s a game we play,” Graham said. “Every American tries to find the way to get the most deductions they can. I see nothing wrong with playing the game because we set it up to be a game.”
Graham set up a straw man here. The issue with Romney is really not deductions. Oh, sure, the Dems will rant on about that.
It’s the offshore accounts.
And Graham knows it.
But, as usual, you always defend your own political sports team, no matter what.
Another reason why many independents happily remain independents.
P.S. I thought the argument is that the wealthy job creators will put their money right back into the United States? I never knew offshore accounts qualify.
Joe Gandelman is a former fulltime journalist who freelanced in India, Spain, Bangladesh and Cypress writing for publications such as the Christian Science Monitor and Newsweek. He also did radio reports from Madrid for NPR’s All Things Considered. He has worked on two U.S. newspapers and quit the news biz in 1990 to go into entertainment. He also has written for The Week and several online publications, did a column for Cagle Cartoons Syndicate and has appeared on CNN.