Where are all the conservatives, to stand up for John Kerry?

by TrogloPundit | August 7, 2010 2:40 pm

Forgive me for dredging this story up again — I was on vacation when it broke, so it’s been simmering.

A recap: John Kerry was mooring his boat in Rhode Island, instead of his home state of Massachusetts. The reason: taxes. If he’d moored in Massachusetts, he’d have been hit with $437,000 in sales taxes, plus another $70,000 annually. In Rhode Island, if I understand this correctly, it costs him nothing.

Half a million dollars less, just for moving a little bit south.

Naturally, the hypocrisy of it all was simply too much:[1]

… back in March, when Kerry was taking delivery of his new yacht, he was applauding passage of legislation designed to end “blatant tax evasion.”

The new law, Kerry said, would put an end to a system that allowed “powerful people to hide assets abroad and evade our tax laws.”

But, since the story’s over a week old now, let’s put that aside. Instead, let’s congratulate Senator Kerry for showing such good sense.

Good for you, Senator Kerry. He did the smart thing, after all: saving half a million dollars. It was completely legal. Rhode Island clearly values the presence of rich people, with their fat wallets and spending habits, more than Massachusetts does.

If only we’d had the chance to show him the support he needed — to nurture this instinct within him — before he caved.

Let it be duly recorded: I’m for people avoiding taxes by whatever legal means are available to them, whether they be individuals, Mom & Pop businesses, multinational corporations, or liberal Senators who make their careers by demonizing those who create.

There’s nothing wrong with what Sen. Kerry did. Other than that whole hypocrisy thing, that is. If only he could see it.

Now. Massachusetts. I’m sure, because they elect people like Kerry and Kennedy, that Massachusetts feels quite good about the taxes they levy on rich yacht owners — people who can afford it.

People who can also afford to drive the short distance to Rhode Island, where they can also afford to pay people to care for their boats; to buy supplies to stock their boats; to maintain their boats. To eat out. To shop.

If your taxes, Massachusetts, were competitive with Rhode Islands…well, sure, you wouldn’t be getting that half million. But you’re not getting the half million now, are you? Okay, from Kerry you are, since somebody noticed his boat down there in Rhode Island. But what if nobody had noticed? What if he’d gotten away with it?

Your tax policies would have cost you. That’s what.

And what about all the other rich people who haven’t been the subjects of 24-hour public humiliation all week? Who don’t have to bow to public opinion? They’re mooring their boats in Rhode Island, and you, Massachusetts, are getting nothing.

How does it feel, Massachusetts, to have all those half-million-dollar tax bills waiting for boats that never moor in your state?

Change your tax policies, MA, and at the very least you’ll get all the secondary spending all those rich yacht-owners are almost guaranteed to do in your state. If they were in your state. But they’re not. They’re in Rhode Island.

Quit being such doofuses, all of you. That’s my point. You’re being doofuses, and you should stop.

(The TrogloPundit[2] wishes more Democrat Senators would make the same decision Senator Kerry did)

Endnotes:
  1. the hypocrisy of it all was simply too much:: http://www.bostonherald.com/track/inside_track/view/20100801one_more_tax_to_grind_long_john_kerry/srvc=home&position=also
  2. The TrogloPundit: http://troglopundit.wordpress.com

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