Damn straight, Shaft.

You don’t get a shiny new suit for fucking up your own program, Barry.

Don’t forget — The only reason $HRILLary (amirite?) pulled a burn on this car is because the trunk was filled with leftover Whitewater papers and the corpse of Vince Foster.

In other words, don’t treat Twitter like people treat Tumblr, then? I’m not sure this habit is man-centric. Then again, I’m sitting here in my man cave, manspreading on my La-Z-Man, celebrating my man-iversary — which this year inconveniently fell smack in the middle of a scheduled bro-down — with my man-friend (for…

Oh, man, well I’m sorry if I came off as harsh or dismissive. We may not see entirely eye-to-eye but I appreciate the kindness and respect. Others were less kind.

That’s not at all what I’m trying to say. In fact, that’s the exact opposite of what I’m saying. I’ve clarified my point elsewhere, ad nauseam, but the short version is: deductions =/ not paying taxes on a jet. Everyone should pay taxes on goods and services, and the rich should not be able to juke taxes. Is what he’s…

I admire your restraint. And don’t think I missed the thudding notes of clumsily executed condescension. But let’s go ahead and tackle some of that condescension: Yes, one of these keeps trillions of dollars in the hands of those who make deductions (ranging from the poor to the middle class to the wealthy) and the…

I know, right? Fuck idealism. Hey, for that matter, fuck wanting or trying to change things. It’s not like idealism and the concept of a more perfect union was what the country founded on; that sounds like the adorably naive born-yesterday idealism of a bunch of saps and special snowflakes.

The irony here is staggering. But, if you’d like to get shittily condescending, I’ll do you one better: You understand the difference between wealth and poverty, right? Or, on a similar scale, the difference between a middle class income and the kind of wealth that can afford a $35 million jet? The wealthy are taxed…

The cognitive dissonance is staggering

So, you’re saying that the man who has demonstrably exploited a loophole in the tax code to avoid paying taxes on a $35 million jet (which is not equivalent to claiming a dependent, and certainly no where near a charitable donation) will...reform the tax code? To prevent the kind of thing he’s just done?

It’s not a matter of wealth, it’s a matter of skirting taxes. But you know that.

I’m not having a tough time at all. I’m a little surprised at the conservative bent of the Jalop readership, and equally surprised that a bunch of (presumed) middle to upper middle class people would leap to the defense of a billionaire, but that’s about it.

No, we’ve got someone who thinks if you can afford a $35 million jet, you can afford the attendant taxes on said jet. I know it’s a scandalous point of view, but bear with me. That said, if your small business (I presume you own and operate one) has a $35 million jet, I would very much like to be one of your employees.

A flat tax would only benefit the wealthy, and disproportionately burden the poor and middle class. I hate both player and game.

There is a difference between a deduction and shuffling a $35 million jet around subsidiaries to avoid paying taxes. It’s called false equivalence, and I’m sure you’re aware of that.

So, legal loopholes exist, the people who made the rule book did so to favor themselves and their friends (the wealthy), but “one of the main points of this country [is] equality?” You see the irony in that, right? The argument that “as long as everyone is playing by the same rule book and follows it” falls apart if…

That is not how a flat tax works. A flat tax, would by its very definition, overtax the poor and middle class while undertaxing the rich. It’s not a balance by any stretch of the imagination.

If you can’t see the difference between taking a deduction or writing off your mortgage and skirting $3 million of taxes on a $35 million plane, I don’t know what to tell you, other than false equivalence is fun for everybody. But there is a certain, gleeful irony in coming down on deadbeats and sponges while…

So, if I’m understanding your point correctly, you think the tax system is full of loopholes for the wealthy, but since those loopholes are there, they may as well make hay while the sun shines because fair is fair? How can you cynically acknowledge the flaws in the standing tax code in breath, but defend someone’s…