Partisanship on Parade: Graham Says It’s “Really American” To Avoid Paying Taxes Like Romnye
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.
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Of course those loopholes that Romney takes advantage of just magically appeared with no input or lobbying from those who benefit from them, happily put in place by people like Senator Graham.
Money in offshore accounts isn’t automatically untaxed. Heck as to the Swiss accounts they now give info to the Feds. Heck they were just waiting for some bad new for Obama to run out this latest “We don’t know he did anything wrong but lets talk about like we do” campaign. Pretty week.
One of the interesting things was that at least one of the accounts that have been brought to light was not reported when Romney was governor.
Come on Mittens, be like your father…
Graham said: “The senator’s solution to such gamesmanship is a major overhaul of the tax system, similar to the Simpson-Bowles deficit reduction plan that calls for lowering rates while closing loopholes.”
Hello, both Obama and Reps, you ignored this and will probably bury tax reform after the election.
It is a game and Washington is the biggest player, yes bought and paid for by those evil rich guys.
Most Americans try to avoid paying more taxes than they have to. I know I do. Still it’s silly to paint that as somehow patriotic or defining one as American as I guess Graham was trying to do.
DG, my reading of Graham’s remarks has him pointing out that it is a game now, and why don’t we have tax reform. Both of which I agree with and I will be filing an amended return to get a refund I am allowed but couldn’t document before; stupidity does not run in my family.
We are in an entitled society, after all.
dduck when you look at the larger context of his remarks I agree with you. Websites like HuffPo don’t want to look at the larger context since they can’t make Graham look bad that way. Still, Graham’s injecting the “it’s really American” comment was a bad decision on his part, since it detracted from the valid points he was making.
You got it, DG. The old, take it from context and distort irony, is still alive in partisan media reports and politics. It is unfortunate that there aren’t, how can I put this delicately, more credible commentators and news sources, with high exposure on the right. The left’s people are so serious and gray haired (like a Moyer, see his article on TMV.) The Reps seem to have people like Rush, O’Reily, Hannity that are more familiar with hammers and saws, than scalpels and tiny screwdrivers. (Oh, you know what I mean, that last came out badly.)
DG and dd
I had to go to the HuffPo article to see how it took Mr. Graham’s quotes from a larger context and distorted irony and was partisan.
Since all it was was quotes which, I assume, Sen. Graham actually made, I’m missing the missing larger context, the irony, and the partisanship. Was this just a lack of general understanding on my part, or is there some secret code I don’t have?
Joe’s point, that if it comes to light that Obama or Biden have offshore accounts, it may not energize Sen. Graham to conclude it attests to their American impulse to avoid taxes to the same extent Mr. Romney’s offshore accounts have, is not completely off the wall. Of course he might say the same thing about Biden and Obama, and we all hope he would, but it’s an election year.
The Republicans do have competent intellectuals but they haven’t the forums the people you listed have and several of them seem to be severing themselves completely from the Republican Party. We need to make their voices heard. We need valid debate on how to solve our problems, and quickly.
OK, DG, explain yourself. As for me, the current tax code is a monstrous joke, and I interpret LG’s remarks to be ironically pointing out how “American” it was. LG favors some kind of tax reform (although probably with military INCREASES), as do many of us. I think that is his point, that it should not be a game. The twisting, IMHO, is that he is made out to say it is American to avoid taxes because it is a “game” that Washington set up (with a little help, of course from you know who).
Whew, I confused myself.
I agree with Sen. Graham; it’s been a long-playing game that’s gotten so complex it’s almost impossible to disentangle without starting over completely. And that might be the best thing to do.
I saw nothing wrong with Simpson-Bowles as far as it went, but as someone pointed out in another thread, there was no resolution because they couldn’t get a majority agreement. Perhaps after the election it will be resuscitated.
TO, my reading of Graham’s comments is he was saying don’t blame Romney for taking advantage of tax loopholes, blame congress for the crappy tax system. To me, HuffPo presents the main point both in the headline and in the lead paragraph as Graham thinks it is American to avoid taxes. This is cherrypicking a stupid comment and portraying it as the key point. Both sides do this all the time in the endless game of scoring partisan points.
DG
I follow you. This is getting curiouser and curiouser. I’ve tried to find the source of this story and everything links back to the HuffPo article by Michael McAuliff which has no source indicating where Sen. Graham made this statement and to whom the statement was made. Was it made to Mr. McAuliff? Not clear. Was that all he said? Not clear. At this point we only have the unattributed HuffPo piece which may be all or even none of the story.
It reminds me of a story I tried to trace years ago about Sen. Feinstein and it was all over the internet but all linked back to a local San Francisco muckraker. I want to see either a video or proper attribution in startling reports like this.
Sorry I can’t help more, I’m beginning to doubt this story is legit, and I agree they used the most eye grabbing lead – and it worked. Not that there’s anything wrong with that.
Thanks, Ohio, it’s nice to have someone here on TMV that takes the time to check this kind of stuff out.