"YOU PAY YOUR FAIR SHARE, I'LL PASS ON MINE"

Little John Edwards has been hopping mad for a year now about the “Bush tax Cuts for the Wealthy”. He was especially incensed by the evil Tax Shelters. Cached pages (here and here) from johnedwards2004.com we get little John say things like this:

“Because they don’t even try to hide it. The Bush budget proposed tax-free tax shelters for millionaires that are bigger than most Americans’ paychecks for an entire year. And just last week, Bush’s tax guru, Grover Norquist, said their goal is to abolish the capital gains tax, abolish the dividend tax, and let the wealthiest shelter as much as they want tax-free.”

and:

“And yet this President, who ought to be leading the way, has offered nothing in the way of reform. This last tax bill is a vast giveaway to all the insiders who drove our economy into the ditch. Instead of tackling wasteful tax shelters, the bill actually encourages them.”

You get the feeling that someone like John Edwards would never stoop so low as to hide from paying fair share.

Until you read a little article in today's SFGate:

“Edwards created an S Corporation tax shelter for himself in 1995 that has enabled him to shield some of his income from taxes. The shelter became an issue in Edwards' 1998 Senate campaign.

The Times, citing records it requested and obtained from the Kerry-Edwards campaign, said Edwards paid $9,353,448 in federal taxes on his income of $26,869,496 over the four-year period.

The tax shelter allowed him to avoid paying $591,112 in Medicare tax during the period, the newspaper said. “

$591,000 worth of Medicare taxes dodged? That's sounds pretty bad. To give Edwards credit, he never said people actually paying the Medicare taxes they owe is the way to bring about solvency, in fact he rejected that idea. On the Leadership Council of Aging Organizations website, he said this:

“The Trust Fund is expected to become insolvent in 2026. To fix this, I reject the notion that the only solution to the Medicare crisis is to cut benefits, cut provider payments, or raise taxes.”

But to most of us, skipping out on paying taxes for elderly medical care seems a bit cold and just a bit unfair to the rest of us who just pay instead of shelter our taxes.

Little John Edwards – he believes you should pay his fair share.