American Patriotism | Eastern North Carolina Now

    Publisher's Note: Jim Bispo's weekly column appears in the Beaufort Observer.

    If you didn't listen to the Prez's speeches, you wouldn't know what it means to be a good American. (Yeah...right.) Just lately, he has been telling us what is unpatriotic. It follows that anyone who is unpatriotic is not a good American. The unpatriotic surely belong in the same "penalty box" as those who claim to have succeeded in business through personal commitment, dedication, and hard work while we all know that they didn't do it. It was the Government that made them successful. Of course it was..

    The Prez says that corporations who do things to reduce their tax burden (even though legal) are unpatriotic. It would seem to follow that anyone who does anything that will reduce the amount of income taxes they pay, even though it is legal, is likewise being unpatriotic. Clearly anyone who is unpatriotic is not a good American. "Patriotic" apparently means overpaying the tax you owe the government.

    That being the case, companies like Jackson Hewitt Tax Service, Liberty Tax Service, H & R Block and all the other tax preparation services as well as tax software preparers are all aiders and abetters of the unpatriotic - which surely makes them unpatriotic also.. They must be. They all advertise that they will help you to pay the least amount of taxes legally possible. They lead us down the road of being unpatriotic. Un-American to say the least. And they even advertise it. They admit it in public.

    So what are we to make of people who take full and complete advantage of allowable deductions in order to reduce the amount of income taxes they pay?? (The allowable deductions are commonly referred to as "loopholes" - but only when someone of the other political persuasion takes advantage of them.) Are these people really being unpatriotic?? Unless there is something wrong with the Anointed One's logic, the short answer is yes.

    But wait.. Take a look at what the Anointed One does at tax time. The amount he deducted from his income in 2008 in order to arrive as ths taxable income was $301,519 (while the "standard deduction" was $10,900). In 2009 the amount deducted was $514,819 (while the "standard deduction was $11,400). In 2010 the amount was $373,289 against a "standard deduction" that remained at $11,400. And in 2011 the amount was $278,498 against a "standard deduction" of $11,600. I rather expect that there are a lot of folks in the world who would be happy to have an income as large as those deductions. We will have to wait to see what happens to those numbers after his "Foundation" is firmly established and he can (if he does as the Clintons do) donate large amounts to the Foundation and then use the Foundation's resources to cover a lot of things he (and his bride) do... In all fairness, it must be noted that the Obama contributions shown on the tax returns I have seen cover a wide spectrum of charities while the Clinton contributions that I have seen tend to focus exclusively on one - the Clinton Foundation.

    To review the Obama returns, click here.

    Those itemized deductions seem to comply with IRS Regs. They help reduce the amount of income the Anointed One (and his wife) must pay by a significant amount. So why shouldn't he take them?? Short answer: Because doing things to reduce the amount of income taxes you pay is unpatriotic. Well, that's what he and his spear carriers tell us when corporations do it.

    Surely our Prez should not be doing anything that could be viewed as even remotely unpatriotic - but there he is. What kind of example is that?? Oh but wait... Maybe that doesn't apply to our rulers - or erstwhile community organizers - or both..

    Of course we do have a government that is staffed by a great many Patricians. (That would be most of the "Schedule C" folks appointed to their positions by the Prez.) That includes the "rule makers" who seem to always make sure that their rules generally do not apply to themselves or their pals. Congress people (and their staffs - who do most of their thinking for them) are surely the most egregious example of the Washington crowd "taking care of themselves". But the Prez, VEEP, and many of his Schedule C appointments are also certainly part of the cohort.

    To see what positions are in the Plum Book, click here. Prepare to be amazed...

    It is interesting that the Anointed One did not focus on Jeffery Immelt or GE when he charged many corporations with being unpatriotic. That would be the same Jeffery Immelt (GE CEO) who was appointed head of the Anointed One's Jobs Council. Two things make that appointment strange. First: GE is reputed to have paid zero income taxes for several years in a row at about the time of his appointment to the Jobs Council. Second: At about the same time, GE was moving hundreds of jobs off shore. Or maybe Ms. Immelt's boy Jeffery, by virtue of being one of the Anointed One's contributors (or is it "bundlers"?), has been ruled a Patrician by the Administration?? In any case "working" the tax code (as GE has clearly done) so as to not have to pay any taxes would surely meet the Anointed One's criteria for being deemed unpatriotic - ergo not a very good American. Yet one more imponderable position this Administration has taken. Hmmm...

    D'ya Think??