What’s a Socialist millionaire to do when the little people demand to take a look at his tax returns? Punt. That’s what 2020 Democrat/Socialist Bernie Sanders is doing.
Sanders may or may not be releasing 10 years of tax returns on April 15, the federal deadline for filing tax returns. Sanders pledged to do so just six weeks ago, but when questioned Thursday about making good on his pledge, he told CNN that the returns “will be released soon.” Hisexcuse is that he wants to make sure “all of them are together.” Hmm.
“Do you know what April 15th is? It’s Tax Day,” Sanders told CNN on Capitol Hill when asked if there was an issue to release his taxes. “So, I think we want to make sure we have all of them together and as I said, they will be released soon.”
When asked if that meant he would not necessarily release his tax returns on April 15, Sanders responded, “That’s it. Thank you very much.”
Then an aide stepped in front of the CNN reporter to stymie the reporter’s reasonable follow-up question, which was: did Sanders’ response mean he may not necessarily meet his own deadline? However, Bernie wanted to change the subject in a hurry to focus on the House’s action in passing the Yemen War Powers Resolution. “Today let’s worry about the starving children in Yemen.”
Could it be that Bernie and his campaign is just waiting for the right time to release his tax returns when the document dump won’t garner too much media attention? That would be a foolish exercise. Sanders has traveled from coast to coast on a political message of a man operating within a humble grassroots campaign to get his message out as an economic populist. How will it look when all those BernieBros discover that he and his wife, Jane, have earned more than a million dollars annually over the last few years? Or that they own homes in Burlington, VT, Washington, D.C. and in 2016 purchased a lake-front home in Vermont?
VTDigger reported in May that he made more than $1 million in 2017 — $885,767 of which came from cash advances and royalties for his book, “Our Revolution” on his failed 2016 presidential bid. It’s the second time he made roughly that amount, making more than a million in 2016 also.
Wait. Isn’t climate change a top issue for Bernie? Owning and running three homes seems like a large carbon footprint, doesn’t it? And, then there’s Bernie’s love of air travel to get to campaign events. He endorsed the Green New Deal, you know, and that silly, unrealistic wish list calls for the elimination of air travel. Maybe his campaign thought buying some carbon offsets would cover his rear end. (Fox News)
But other parts of his lifestyle are also drawing scrutiny, specifically when compared to his calls to limit environmental pollution and also to redistribute the wealth of the “millionaires and billionaires.”
In October, he spent nearly $300,000 on air travel so he could speak to audiences in nine battleground states before the November midterms. This from a candidate who has endorsed a Green New Deal that seeks to dramatically reduce (if not eliminate entirely) air travel.
Sanders’ team reportedly purchased nearly $5,000 in carbon offsets to balance out the emissions produced from the travel, according to VTDigger. A carbon offset is a reduction in emissions to compensate for emissions elsewhere.
The same day his campaign paid the jet company, Sanders called climate change a “planetary crisis” in a tweet.
Bernie from Brooklyn is living pretty large like the other swamp creatures as he rails against them. Thursday night Sanders was a guest on The Daily Show. After host Trevor Noah asked if maybe it’s just time for the old white guy to step aside and let others run for president, He quickly changed the subject.
