How stupid is Al Franken?
Of course, everyone has heard by now that Al Franken, former entertainer (I’m told) and radio show host turned politician and candidate for a Minnesota senatorial slot owes $70 thousand in back taxes according to the Washington Times;
“Saturday Night Live” veteran Al Franken should have had an easier run for U.S. Senate in Minnesota against an embattled Republican incumbent but is being dogged by $70,000 in unpaid taxes and is slipping in the polls — just one of the topsy-turvy races clouding Democrats’ expectations of big gains in November.
No one accidentally forgets to pay their taxes and Al Franken is no different. Does Minnesota want a Democrat in the Senate so badly that they’ll vote for this moron?
In Minnesota, Mr. Franken looked strong against Sen. Norm Coleman, one of the Republican Party’s most vulnerable incumbents.
Minnesota is trending Democratic, and both President Bush and the Iraq war are wildly unpopular in the state. Minnesota voters elected Democrat Amy Klobuchar to an open U.S. Senate seat in 2006 by a 20-point margin.
Mr. Franken, roiled for more than a month by questions about his personal finances, announced Tuesday that he owed about $70,000 in unpaid taxes in at least 17 states where he performed between 2003 and 2007. He blamed bad accounting and said he overpaid taxes by that much in Minnesota and New York.
Al Franken has been in show business for more than three decades (I’m told), and he still hasn’t figured out taxes yet? I suppose that he’s probably not all that accustomed to actually getting paid for performing. However, doesn’t it seem that a rational person would’ve taken care that of these problems were settled BEFORE running for office?
Unless he thinks that he can win JUST because he’s a Democrat, and he thinks so badly of Minnesota voters that they’ll vote for him even though he failed at fulfilling his first duty as a citizen – paying his taxes like the rest of us.
Category: Politics
Well off topic (politics/taxes); but I’ve never found Franken funny OR entertaining, even back in the Franken and Davis days.
A genuine puzzle to me…
I say good for Franken! We should all stop paying our taxes. There is no law requiring citizens to pay (although that defense didn’t help Al Capone). What would happen if one day the government woke up to find the citizens had decided to stop playing the swindle game? Though I doubt Mr. Franken, Mr. Snipes or Sinbad had such lofty ideas in mind…
To answer your question: No. Minnesota doesn’t “want a Democrat in the Senate so badly they’ll vote for …” (sic: Al Franken). They won’t get that choice. The party has yet to endorse, and now pure progressive professor JackNelson-Pallmeyer is looking strong in the endorsement race. The party may well send a squeeky clean former divinity student activist on poverty and peace issues, who is well spoken and just drips with integrity and political courage up against Norm Coleman. Norm is praying that does not happen.
Did I misread the 16th Amendment?
“The Congress shall have power to lay and collect taxes on incomes, from whatever source derived, without apportionment among the several states, and without regard to any census or enumeration.”
I think the Congress would disagree about there being no law requiring you to pay taxes, as would the Tax courts. Passing new tax laws is one of the favorite hobbies of Congress.
This does not make me a happy taxpayer… but to deny the legality of the income tax is (as you have mentioned others have found) pointless. The best solution I have seen so far is the Fair Tax.
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