What We Can Learn from Bernie Sanders's Tax Return
Quite a few Bernie Sanders fans responded to this piece with the insistence, "He's entitled to take all of those deductions!" And the piece never said otherwise, at least legally. But it's quite ironic that the candidate who spends the most time arguing that the rich are under-taxed makes $205,000 per year and pays a lower tax rate than the average American. He is himself an example of precisely the phenomenon he decries every day on the campaign trail; he cuts himself slack he would never extend to any wealthy person he so vehemently demonizes. When you offer a tax plan, you're contending, "These are the parts of the current tax system that I think are bad; this is what needs to be changed." One part of Sanders's plan is that the home mortgage deduction should be capped and limited to the first $300,000 in home-mortgage debt. (It's currently capped much higher, $500,000 for a person filing singly, $1 million for a couple.) We don't know exactly how much mortgage debt the Sanders family has, but their Vermont home was bought in 2009 for $405,000, and their townhouse on Capitol Hill, purchased in 2007, has two mortgages on it totaling $464,550. He probably has more -- way more -- than $300,000 left to pay off on the two properties. So Sanders thinks wealthy people get to deduct too much from their taxes for their mortgage interest . . . but he himself will deduct nearly $23,000. Another part of Sanders's plan is that people making more than $250,000 per year would see the value of their deductions limited to 28 cents on every dollar of taxes they paid. (Notice Sanders' threshold is about $45,000 more than he and his wife earn.) The heart of that argument is, rich people are paying too little in taxes because the law allows them to take too many deductions. The Unbearable Hypocrisy of the Left Can a Republican candidate besides Donald Trump adequately articulate the message, "We're not going to pay attention to the rules and values of leftist elitists, because they refuse to live by those rules and values themselves"? They demonize wealth while accumulating it for themselves. They lecture us about carbon emissions while using energy in ways we never will: A day after Bernie Sanders claimed he 'introduced the most comprehensive climate change legislation' and said he would tax carbon use, the Democratic presidential candidate chartered a Delta 767 to fly him to Rome and back for less than 24 hours. After attacking rival Hillary Clinton for her stance on fossil fuels stepped on Thursday, Sanders stepped off the plane on Friday in Rome for the Vatican conference with his wife, ten family members, a group of campaign staff, Secret Service detail and members of the press. The total group of what is believed to be below 50, flew in a chartered Delta 767 for their trip, which can seat between 211 and 261 people, depending on the model. It is unclear if Sanders's aircraft had flatbed seats. A 767 aircraft carries up to 23,980 gallons of fuel, which is 'enough to fill 1,200 minivans', according to Boeing. Yogi Berra might say Democrats believe a lot of things that they don't actually believe. The Sanders presidential campaign was a giant bet that Democrats meant what they said when they lambasted corporations, banks, Wall Street, rich people, and this allegedly wildly unregulated free market (an unregulated free market that is entirely mythical to anyone who has ever tried to start a small business). If Democrats really believed their own rhetoric, there was no way they could possibly nominate the former board member of the legendarily anti-union Walmart, who made millions in speaking fees for speeches to big banks and financial firms, who "sounded more like a Goldman Sachs managing director" than a critic, according to attendees. Her net worth is four times what it takes to reach America's one percent. You don't usually find populist crusaders eager to dismantle an emerging plutocracy posing for pictures at Donald Trump's wedding. The problem for Sanders was that only a portion of his party's base really feels that the rich need to be punished, and for the most part, progressive leaders don't actually think that what they demand of others is meant to apply to them. Like Sanders, they think it's only greedy when the other guy does it. The Los Angeles County Federation of Labor, AFL-CIO is demanding an exemption from the $15-per-hour minimum wage law they pushed to enact. Michael Moore didn't use union workers on his film about how greedy corporations exploit workers. The Nation, which paid its interns the minimum wage of $7.25 per hour, wrote an open letter to Walmart demanding that it pay its workers at least $12 per hour. The American Prospect, which frequently demands a hike in the minimum wage, offers a $100 weekly stipend for a full-time internship. Some unions may pay you a bit more than that, namely $8.50 per hour, to protest and chant outside worksites where contractors are not using union labor. (The hourly-rate chanters, of course, were non-union workers themselves.) The Vermont senator made the mistake of taking the party's base seriously. Sanders cast an accusing finger at the nation's wealthiest and most powerful and declared, "No one should be allowed to do this!" But what Democrats really wanted to hear was, "Only we should be allowed to do this!" The Democratic base wants what it wants, and doesn't want to have to think too hard about how to get it or how it will work -- or whether what they're demanding today directly contradicts what they demanded yesterday. Recent history suggests that when Democrats actually enact their long-awaited dream programs, they end up disappointed. They wanted universal healthcare and ended up with Obamacare's canceled plans, doctors they couldn't keep, and higher premiums, deductibles, and copays. They wanted a complete withdrawal from Iraq and now see ISIS on the march. They elected the first African-American president, yet live in an era of worsening racial tensions. The Obama administration promised economic renewal through a gargantuan stimulus, yet Americans feel they're enduring a long era of economic anxiety, resentment, and anger. If Trump Represents a Movement, Where Are His Lower-Office Followers? Tevi Troy asks whether the GOP will be irrevocably torn by this year's primary: It's possible that we are seeing a temporary estrangement but not a complete divorce. Trump's success so far would have to be a blip -- a temporary surge by a talented communicator whose lack of a core ideology leaves no lasting impression. For this to be the case, Trump would have to lose the nomination and whoever else get the nod -- be it Cruz, Kasich or someone else -- would have to have some kind of rapprochement with GOP intellectuals. In this case, we would see a return to the old paradigm with little change to the existing set of intellectual ideas. But the rapprochement scenario is unlikely, especially since the GOP intellectuals are disconnected not only from Trump, but also from a significant portion of the GOP voter base. Some think tankers have spoken "reform conservatism" -- a new mix of issues designed to appeal to today's struggling lower middle-class voters -- but this effort itself is controversial among conservatives, and looks to be going nowhere. The reform camp has failed to achieve the fusionist consensus that Buckley and Meyer forged decades ago, which brought together the three main strands of conservative thought -- economic, social and foreign policy -- under one anti-communist umbrella. Here's the thing: is there anyone besides Donald Trump who could have emerged to be this kind of figure this year? Rick Santorum and Mike Huckabee offered their version of "blue-collar conservatism" this cycle and flopped. A lot of Trump's offerings -- vehement opposition to illegal immigration and free trade, a somewhat isolationist foreign policy, more than a little "blood and soil" nationalism -- was offered by Pat Buchanan in past decades; you notice there was no clear Buchanan heir in Republican politics until now. Among GOP lawmakers, there's pretty broad support for border security and some deportations, but there were only a handful of trade skeptics and another handful of isolationists -- certainly few Republican lawmakers are dismissing NATO as obsolete or calling for arming South Korea and Japan with nuclear weapons as Trump has done. There's not much sign of a Trump-ist caucus in the House and Senate, and it's unlikely there will be one for a while, if ever. The Trump movement has its base -- the 37 percent of GOP primary voters who cast a ballot for him -- and it has Trump at its top. What it lacks so far is much of a middle. So far only one senator, three governors, and seven House members have endorsed him. Most of his biggest-name endorsees are those who departed elected office and aren't likely to return: Sarah Palin, Scott Brown, Ben Carson. Or you could argue the Trump movement's middle isn't policymakers, it's pundits: Ann Coulter, Laura Ingraham, Sean Hannity, Andrea Tantaros, Eric Bolling, and arguably Rush Limbaugh. As a candidate, Trump brought a lot of advantages to the 2016 cycle that no other like-minded political figure could match: He was a celebrity for decades, popping up on prime-time television and commercials and movie cameos and glossy magazines. Money was no issue for him. He already had a larger-than-life persona in a way that say, Steve Forbes didn't. Saturday Night Live already had more than one comedian impersonating him. In the 2018 midterm cycle, you might see a lot of Republican candidates aspiring to be Trump and aping his style. But very few will be able to pull it off; they'll sound more like Todd Akin than the ubiquitous media celebrity. ADDENDA: Well, we know John Kasich doesn't have high expectations for today's New York primary. He's spending the day in Pennsylvania and Maryland. Event: Retail Stop at Original Oyster House Date: Tuesday, April 19th Time: 1:30PM EDT Location: Original Oyster House - 20 Market Square, Pittsburgh, PA 15222 Event: Annapolis Town Hall Date: Tuesday, April 19th Time: Doors open at 5:00PM EDT - Program begins at 6:00PM EDT Location: Crowne Plaza Annapolis - 173 Jennifer Rd., Annapolis, MD 21401 Public RSVP: Kasich-Annapolis.eventbrite.com  | 
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