Commentary

Selecting a man or woman of the year and reviewing the year just passed is old hat and I don’t intend to waste space here with it.  I just have a few items I found both interesting and humorous that I want to share with you.

Those Trump Tax Returns

Since former President Trump refused to release his tax returns, the left has continued an effort to gain access to them, seeking an opportunity to embarrass him. 

Now that his returns are soon to become public, it’s the U.S. Congress that should be embarrassed, but that isn’t stopping out-going Ways and Means Chairman Richard Neal (D-MD) of leaking that the former president paid little or no income taxes in recent years.

In a Wall Street Journal op-ed, “How Congress Cut Trump’s Taxes,” we learn how Trump merely benefited from every tax loophole that lawmakers have made available to real estate businesses.

These include deferral of income, conversion of ordinary income into lower-taxed capital gains, nontaxable income, tax credits, and artificial tax losses that ordinary taxpayers can’t obtain.

In his op-ed, Jay Sparkman, a certified public accountant, wrote of questionable returns of Presidents Franklin Roosevelt, Lyndon Johnson and Jimmy Carter before stating:

“Mr. Trump isn’t unusual in aggressively claiming tax deductions – only in being the most scrupulously examined president ever, with no credible allegations yet that he achieved any of his or his family’s wealth through corruption.  How many members of Congress can say the same.”

Interestingly – While 53 percent of voters agree with the Democrats releasing Trump’s tax returns, 54 percent agree that the tax returns of those Democrats who voted to do so should also be released, according to Rasmussen Reports. HMMMMM.

Friedman’s Having Last Laugh

Regular readers may recall my admiration of economist Milton Friedman.  My last reference to him was in my July 10, 2022 blog, “There’s No Free Lunch.”

When I saw the headline, “The ghost of Milton Friedman is haunting President Biden,” in American Experiment, I recalled Biden’s campaign statement, “Milton Friedman isn’t running the show anymore.”  All I could think at the time was ‘Joe would fail a Friedman-taught course in economics.’

Friedman simply summarized that inflation comes from “too much money chasing too few goods.”

That captures the current situation, according to author/economist John Phelon, who writes that “the inflation that is damaging the Biden administration so badly, to say nothing of the finances of ordinary Americans, is playing out just like Friedman would have predicted.”

“Friedman is having the last laugh,” wrote Phelon.

Another Pelosi Photo Op

One humorous story gives me the opportunity to announce in advance the recipient of my January 2023 Fool’s Day honors – Nancy Pelosi.

In case you missed it, following her remarks about the passage of the Omnibus Bill, outgoing Speaker Pelosi, on the floor of the U.S. House of Representatives, wished members of various faiths – “Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, and Happy Shwanza – whatever you’re celebrating, be sure.”

What!  You’ve never heard of Shwanza?

She meant to say Kwanzaa, of course.  It’s the December 26 to January 1 African-American tradition, founded in 1966 in the United States by activist/educator Dr. Maulana Karenga.

Pelosi’s misspoken name of the tradition shouldn’t surprise anyone.  She often ignores Catholic traditions while claiming to be a devout Catholic.

Embarrassing.  There’s More.

You may recall her leading a group of Representatives and Senators kneeling in the Capitol’s Emancipation Hall for nearly nine minutes wearing Kente cloths from Ghana.  It was to honor the life of George Floyd and to show solidarity with Americans protesting police brutality.  What about Americans who are not African American?

I bid a thankful good-bye to the Mistress of the Photo Op, who, in another embarrassing moment, ripped up her copy of then President Trump’s State of the Union address on national television.

May God continue to bless the United State of America, and if I don’t sit down at my keyboard to write again before the end of the year, I want to wish you and your family a Happy New Year filled with hope for a Republican House that will cut spending.