Look for Rove to go after Teresa Kerry's taxes!

[annerevere]

Kate O'Beirne prefaced the upcoming attacks with her mention on Capital Gang that Teresa H. Kerry paid slightly over 12% in 2003 while average families paid much more.

O'Beirne is famous for reciting her Bush campaign talking points. They're going after Teresa in the last two weeks of the campaign, and it's not going to be pretty.

Will be interesting to see Kerry's response.

[Dickie Flatt]

1. So?

Teresa isn't average. She's obscenely rich. Tax cuts for the rich. It fits right into what the Johns are saying, doesnt it?

[annerevere]

3. That's why I think Kerry's response will be interesting.

There are several ways to cut this.

[deadparrot]

9. That's what I would think.

That seems far too easy.

[cosmicvortex20]

19. I think she needed to pay more in taxes.

She could have helped so many more poor people.

[LiberalFighter]

23. She does...

through the foundation

[devinsgram]

28. How do you know she didn't?

[AlCzervik]

31. How much do you think she gives away every year?

a lot i'm guessing.

[okieinpain]

33. hey don't get mad. your post is a nice idea, but it's why repugs

run the country.

[bear425]

36. One of the reasons she did not pay more taxes is

she gives so much to charity through foundations. Do you think that's a bad thing? I don't.

[sundancekid]

41. having followed your posts tonite ... don't you think it's time for you

to go back where you have an ideological home????

[Rose Siding]

2. It's a softball

Those are Bush's tax breaks she's getting.

[hlthe2b]

4. Jerks. I suspect it is because on, say $6 million, she donates $5 million

yo her various foundations, thus lowering her taxable income dramatically. They don't have her full filing, so they are taking a stab in the dark. This will come back to bite them.

[wryter2000]

5. THK is going to be their first target, for sure

Once she's first lady, they're going to go after her, tooth and claw. She's going to be wearing the blue dress. We have to protect her.

[wishlist]

6. They already tried to make a big deal over this and no one cared

You know darn well Teresa was extremely careful to pay all of her taxes owed, and she certainly can't be held at fault when the only reason she didn't pay more is because little Georgie gave her and the other millionaires huge tax cuts! And she donates huge amounts to charity.

[Carni]

13. As opposed to MR "Wanna buy some wood"

The bastard has so many tax shelters (with his own generous tax cuts to himself) that he doesn't even know WTF he owns and has his name on... Rove had better hang his little hat on something else.

[SammyWinstonJack]

22. What about the chimp's property taxes on his pig farm?

Seems I read where he pays far less then he should on that deal. Also seem to remember reading about a large piece of property he owns/owned (a recreation property?) with others, outside of Austin, where he and the other owners got some kind of tax break, ended up paying a pittance of what they should have paid. :shrug:

[okieinpain]

34. yeah, but chimpy runs on not paying taxes at all. so that will not

work against him.

[SammyWinstonJack]

43. Yes I forgot,

He says the wealthy hire accountants to get out of paying taxes.An obvious question to that incredibly insulting statement to us non-rich types would be, so why do the ultra rich need tax cuts? Why any working class person supports this arrogant elitist Ahole is beyond me!

[tridim]

7. They always ignore her charitable contributions

Honestly I don't think Rove will waste his time with Teresa, he'll just make up some more lies about Kerry.

[Dimsdale]

8. Do you know what Karl Rove can do?

He can go fuck himself. Haven't we had enough of this douche bag?
If there's any hope for this country, this asshole will not be calling the shots in Washington after Jan '05.

[Carni]

10. Big freaking deal Kerry has already said HE doesn't need a tax cut

That's the point...billionaires don't need and in some cases don't want these bushit tax cuts.

How the hell does this hurt Kerry?

Is Theresa supposed to "donate" money to the IRS even if she is not required to?

[sandnsea]

11. A Newsmax article

Using a bunch of convoluted math, based on a guess that she's actually worth a billion, and getting 5% return, she should therefore make X amount of dollars. Which means if she only paid the tax she claimed on her return, based on $2 million income I think, she would only have paid 12%. It was weird because she already said she was pulling her income out of the Trust and living her children's income private. The Trust isn't just hers, it's the entire families. Just weird numbers games.

Of course, Cheney heading a company that does business with Iran illegally, screws the government, and rakes in billions in the process; well hell, what's to talk about there?

[desiindian]

12. KE Campaign can handles this easily by creating a ad with Theresa

saying Bush's tax cut is helping people like me instead of middle class. And then JK should say that when he is president, he will give tax custs to those who need it and not to people like himself.

[KittyWampus]

18. Exactly, This Is One Briar Patch They Might Be Stupid Enought To Try

[StickNCA]

25. Based upon America's impression of her

I don't think you'll be seeing ANY ads featuring Theresa.

[goclark]

37. America LUVS Moma T

She will be such an improvement over the dope seller.

Pickles is NO match for Teresa!

:loveya:

[life_long_dem]

14. As long as what she did is legal,

oh well, it's not like she invaded a country to overthrow its leader or something.

[glitch]

15. Clinton already gave the best answer to this in his DNC speech.

Very humorously too. Rove must surely show better "genius" than this.

[Ksec]

16. Would that be a good time to attack Lauras murder?

[goodboy]

17. hmm...I think he should worry about his testimony yesterday...(nt)

[Tansy_Gold]

20. And just exactly how much tax did Daddy boosh pay?

Mr. Carlyle Group, Mr. Donations from Sun Myung Moon, Mr. Friend of the Saudi Royal Family, Mr. Son of Trading-with-the-Nazis Prescott Bush? Huh? Huh? How much did he pay?


Tansy Gold, who is quite sure the senior boosh did not benefit at all from having his first born but stupider son in the white house.

[TexasBushwhacker]

21. If you have that kind of money you can invest in tax free

municipal bonds, etc., and our cities and infrastructure depend on that. It's just giving money to the government in a different way, not to mention can you imagine the PROPERTY taxes she pays. Why do people always look at income taxes only? My guess is her 12% is still higher than Cheney pays and I bet she gives away a lot more as well.

[Princess Turandot]

24. Yes...my recollection when they released some of her tax info..

was that her pre-tax income was fairly 'low' to begin with,. It looked like most of it came from Treasury & municipal bonds,the latter of which would not be taxable at all if from her state of residence. US Treasury Bills are exempt from state taxes, but not federal taxes.


Did they explain how they came up with the rate?

[gordianot]

26. It will be a big mistake.

There are too many Republican skeletons waiting in the wings. Remember the "wood", that was a shot across the bow.

I would be willing to bet Teresa has a good Republican tax lawyer and a very interesting trust.

[Booster]

27. I just read in the L.A. Times today that she had over paid

her taxes by a very large amount, but instead of having them send her a refund check, she chose to put it towards next years taxes. I must admit I didn't read the article completely, cause this kind of problem just doesn't interest me much. ha I'll get it out of the trash and read it again.

[Fabio]

29. I researched this.

She pays a low federal tax rate because most of her income is earned from tax-free municipal bonds. These bonds offer a lower rate of interest conditioned on you getting them tax free (because you are providing cheap capital for reinvestment in your community). Her holdings are heavily weighted towards these tax free bonds.

[alisongiggles1960]

30. Is that all they have. Teresa Kerry's taxes HAAAAAAAAA

Rove better come up with something spectacular this isn't Texas or Alabama Politics this is for all the marbles.

[Gloria]

32. Randi Rhodes discussed this after a Wall Street Journal piece

came out...these figures (the 12%) sound like what she quoted from the WSJ. As Randi said then, people can pay lots less than you think, depending on what they give, etc....the deductions. (this was within the last couple of weeks.)

I hope Teresa gave tons of money to charities and her foundation so they can debunk this with flair!

[hulklogan]

35. This is a non-issue. Here's why...

Total tax as a percentage of adjusted gross income, according to 2003 tax returns available at http://www.taxhistory.org/thp/thpwebsite.nsf/Web/PresidentialTaxReturns?OpenDocument

THK (from the NYT article)...27.4%
John Kerry...25.8%
* and Pickles.....27.6%
John and Elizabeth Edwards...7.2% (they claim three children)

DICK CHENEY....19.95%

Daddy Bush, 1991.....15.5%

Rove & Co. probably know about this, and considering that Cheney is the second most wealthy person involved, it is off the table I'm sure.

[newyawker99]

48. Hi hulklogan!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Catshrink]

38. Then Laura Bush's traffic "accident" is also fair game.

Too bad no liberal radio personality is as ethically challenged as Rush or Hannity. If it were Teresa who had run over her boyfriend, you can be sure the red necks would be shouting that she was drunk and that it was intentional. But that's not our style. We stick to facts.

[seabeyond]

39. both bush and cheneys taxes were incredibly low.

i dont remember what the number was but wasnt too far off hienz. and that is in part what bush created with his tax cut for the rich so though the have the audacity to say is easy enough to counter

[NYCGirl]

40. This explains it somewhat more fully than something like Newsmax:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/articles/2004/10/16/heinz_kerry_income_at_5m/

Excerpt:
Heinz Kerry made $5.1m
By Beth Healy, Globe Staff  |  October 16, 2004

Teresa Heinz Kerry reported $5.1 million in income on her 2003 tax return, an amount derived almost entirely from interest and dividends from her investments, according to the first two pages of the return, which she disclosed yesterday.

The wife of Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry paid $627,150 in federal taxes last year. That put her at the relatively low tax rate of 12.3 percent on her total income, because more than half of her earnings came from municipal bonds, which are tax-exempt. Her taxes were 27 percent of her taxable income, which totaled $2.3 million.

[Mr_Spock]

42. 1) Who cares - she's rich and they don't pay 2) It's too late

ergo: non-issue

[in_cog_ni_to]

44. Her tax % payment was 12 or 13%.

The middle class in this country pay 20%!!!! At least that what I saw on C-SPAN the other day. Her tax payment % gives the perfect explaination of why the chimp's tax cuts SUCKED!! Teresa could very well afford to pay 20% tax rate. THAT is what Kerry should say.

[NYCGirl]

50. Her rate on her taxable income was actually 27%:

http://www.boston.com/news/politics/president/kerry/art... /

The wife of Democratic presidential candidate John F. Kerry paid $627,150 in federal taxes last year. That put her at the relatively low tax rate of 12.3 percent on her total income, because more than half of her earnings came from municipal bonds, which are tax-exempt. Her taxes were 27 percent of her taxable income, which totaled $2.3 million.

[hulklogan]

51. TKH DID actually paid 27%

According to the NYT article, Theresa Heinz-Kerry paid 27.4% of her adjusted gross income. Dick Cheney only paid 19.9% of his, according to his 2003 tax return.

Let's not get confused with this 12% nonsense. What really matters is the facts. We all pay tax on our adjusted gross income, not our total income.

[Spiffarino]

45. O'Beirne is a RW media surrogate

She is just one of the hundreds who push the "talking points" for Grover Norquist, Rove, and the other heads of the RW punditocracy. They constantly float trial balloons to see if they go anywhere. When this one falls flat, they'll float another, then another, and so on.

Republicans can rarely get elected on their own, so they use hate, smear, and personal attacks to get the job done.

[calgaldem]

46. Teresa is great BUT....

I think Teresa is great. Her honesty is refreshing.

However, I do have a problem with the wealthy getting tax breaks for charitable contributions. C'mon! They live in their big houses in their wealthy neighborhoods and they get tax breaks for giving money to their kids wealthy school districts and their wealthy churches!

This is just another loophole for the rich to avoid paying their fair share of taxes. I don't think people over a certain income - say $200,000 should get any tax breaks for charitable contributions. They should pay their full share of taxes so the government can make sure that money goes to the people who really need it, not some high school music program that has a $150,000 budget, or some little league baseball team that thinks they need $150.00 uniforms for each kid.

Also, I'm sorry but there should be NO tax deduction for donating to churches. That's just absurd.

[newyawker99]

49. Hi calgaldem!!

Welcome to DU!! :toast:

[Still_Loves_John]

47. Are they talking about income taxes?

Because that would make perfect sense. Teresa is living off a family fortune, not income. It's taxed differently.