Bernie Sanders Is Not A 'Hypocrite' On His Tax Return
Bernie Sanders is a serious threat in this race and in future campaigns, where his message is resonating across the country, so the NRO's Jim Geraghty decided to launch a phony attack Bernie over his 2014 tax return, calling the Vermont Senator a "hypocrite" for the treasonous action of following the U.S. tax codes.
Bernie Sanders released his 2014 tax return this weekend, revealing that he and his wife took $60,208 in deductions from their taxable income. These deductions are all perfectly legal and permitted under the U.S. tax code, but they present a morally inconvenient, if delicious, irony: The Democratic socialist from Vermont, a man who rages against high earners paying a lower effective tax rate than blue-collar workers, saved himself thousands using many of the tricks that would be banned under his own tax plan.
....The deductions left Sanders and his wife paying...an effective federal tax rate of 13.5 percent. If that seems low to you, your instincts are right: According to the Tax Foundation, the average federal income-tax rate for a couple making $200,000 to $500,000 in 2014 was 15.2 percent.