Sen. John F. Kerry (D-Mass.) said Republicans had blocked the so-called Super Committee’s work by demanding an extension of Bush-era tax cuts and refusing to consider significant tax increases on wealthier people. “To have something on the table that does not ask the wealthiest people in the country to share (the burden) … is unconscionable,” Kerry said. Let’s look at the facts in this calculation by Ben Shapiro:
The top 1% of income earners in the United States pull down at least $344,000 in adjusted gross income every year, earn just under 17% of the total income of the country, and pay almost 37% of all taxes. The top 5% of income earners make at least $155,000 and pay 59% of all taxes. The top 10% of income earners make at least $112,000 and pay over 70% of all taxes. . . . 53% of Americans pay taxes and the rest don’t — although they tend to vote for higher taxes on those who do pay.
Kerry, who is a Democrat member of the Super Committee, has no problem with raising taxes since he’s already a multimillionaire, and the majority of people who keep him in office don’t pay federal income taxes. Of course, when he can avoid taxes, he does it in a grand way:
He is docking his family’s new $7 million yacht in Rhode Island, not Massachusetts, so he can save $500,000 in Bay State taxes. If the boat were docked at his summer vacation home on Nantucket, he would have to fork over $437,000 in a one-time sales tax and $70,000 in annual excise taxes. This tax saving is not absurd in Kerry’s mind. It is Tea Parties who should be censored by the media, he says, because they also aren’t “factual.”
Kerry married Teresa Heinz, the widow of Pennsylvania Senator H. John Heinz III, a Republican from Pennsylvania who died when a helicopter collided with his plane in 1991. As far back as 2004, the Los Angeles Times put Teresa Heinz’s wealth at between $900 million and $3.2 billion. Even without his wife’s inherited money, Kerry is wealthy in his own name, being the beneficiary of at least four trusts inherited from Forbes family members, including his mother, who died in 2002. Kerry is the wealthiest U.S. Senator. In 2006, his own wealth was estimated at $267,789,805.
Like all dictators, Kerry lives far above the people in wealth and status. He dictates austerity to everyone else, but maintains a standard of living that far exceeds 99.9 percent of all the people in the world. He has a lust for power and will do almost anything to maintain it, even if it means taxing more Americans and using his government position to time certain stock trades.
Sen. John Kerry’s position on the powerful Senate Finance Committee’s Health Subcommittee gives him direct access to critical information regarding health care policy. In July 2009, pharmaceutical industry representatives met with key members of Congress to flesh out the Obamacare bill. Then, in November 2009, with the bill’s passage was looking more likely, the Kerrys’ portfolios reflect a drug stock buying spree.
Kerry doesn’t see a problem in doing this since he views himself as part of the elite, a “Philosopher King” who does not have to live by the rules that he makes for “average” people. Kerry makes the rules for the rest of us to live by while he and his other liberal cronies live above them. Of course, there are Republicans who are equally guilty but they have better sense by keeping their hypocritical mouths shut.
In his book Throw Them All Out, Peter Schweizer “contends that Sen. Kerry is no stranger to making huge profits off of health care-related trading based on his rare access to information. ‘Some of [Kerry’s] biggest scores were tied to his knowledge of obscure matters that had huge ramifications for certain companies.’”
Martha Stewart went to jail for insider training. Maybe John Kerry should do a little time so he can gain some appreciation on how the 99.9 percent live.
