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Mark Cuban Corrects Himself on Taxes and Accidentally Shows His Dishonesty – Twitchy

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Yes, it’s that time of year, again: Tax Day. We have long said that we should shuffle things around so that you pay your taxes like a week before you vote in federal elections—you know, to put things into perspective.

But for a while now, there has been a weird cadre of Democrats who pretend they love Tax Day, they love paying Taxes, and so on. Whenever we run into people like this, we always wonder ‘are these people for real?’ Well, in one case, Mark Cuban, we can say pretty definitively he is full of crap on this point. Yep, he has been telling us how awesome he thinks it is to pay taxes this year. We covered some of this in a previous post, but it started when someone asked him about whether he is paying extra this year and Cuban responded:

By saying he pays what he is owed, he is at least implying that he is not paying more than he is required to by law. And you have to wonder to yourself ‘is he for real?’

Well, today he corrected his claims and ended up accidentally showing us he is not, indeed, for real:

The cut of text in this case is crucial:

But I’m still proud to be able to give back to our country.  

I’ve said it for years.  After military service, paying your taxes is the most patriotic thing we can do.

We are honestly surprised he didn’t claim that it was the most patriotic thing you can do, but we suppose we should be thankful for the little favors.

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Look, most regular people don’t like paying taxes. The best you can hope for with most regular people is a grumbling acknowledgement that we have to pay taxes because there are government services we actually do need, like policing, the fire department and the military. Most people are less enthusiastic about things like earmarks for studies on lesbian snails in Sri Lanka, but most people recognize that there are some things the government should do, and that most of those things need taxation.

But if someone tries to say they are proud or patriotic to pay their taxes or they otherwise like to do it, that just sounds like performative BS virtue signaling, typically from the left. Like we are pretty sure Mark Cuban dreams of running for President someday, as a Democrat, and, therefore, you might be uniquely skeptical of his sincerity.

But in this case, Cuban has basically told us that he is either completely full of it about how much he loves to pay taxes, or he just isn’t very patriotic. After all, he just said that ‘[a]fter military service, paying your taxes is the most patriotic thing we can do.’ But nothing stops him from paying more than he owes. There is a process for citizens to donate to the Federal Government, so why not donate all of his income, all of his wealth, to the point that he is just taking in about $200,000 a year. You can live extremely comfortably on that and he has said that he doesn’t need most of his money:

So, if paying your taxes is extremely patriotic, why can’t he pay more than what he owes? Why not be one of the most patriotic taxpayers in American History? There are only two possible answers: Either he is not actually as patriotic as he makes himself out to be, or he’s full of it.

And, we tend to think him being full of it seems like the most likely explanation.

A more honest view is the one Trump offered in 2016. Here’s Dave Chappelle talking about it on Saturday Night Live:

And here’s another clip intercutting Chapelle’s comments with actual video from that debate, showing you that Chappelle’s depiction is basically accurate:

Love him or hate him, Trump is giving the more honest answer on taxes. It’s what Mark Cuban would probably say if he drank a magic potion that forced him to tell the truth. Every rational person tries to pay as little in taxes as possible. Rich people in particular do not get where they are by wasting their money.

On to reactions:

The cut off text reads:

3) How do you feel about the federal government stealing that money from you so they can forward a substantial chunk of it to the corrupt Ukrainian government in furtherance of the Military Industrial Complex’s proxy war against Russia?

The week is young.

The cut off text reads:

but most importantly: the IRS continues to target and harm taxpayers without Mark Cuban resources. We don’t need your insult to government injury.

That’s another valid point. Anyone who claims that the IRS goes after the richest tax cheats are fooling themselves. The rich tax cheats have money to fight with. They can afford good tax lawyers who not only might beat the IRS in a single case, but they might set precedents that make it harder to win in the future. So going after the richest cheats is not only hard, but it might damage the IRS’ long-term ability to collect. And none of that gets into any possible political protection provided to the richest cheats. So, the IRS doesn’t go after the richest cheats. They go after lower income alleged cheats because they know those people don’t have the resources to fight them. The IRS agents and lawyers are not velociraptors. They are vultures.

Of course, there always has to be that guy.

Right, we’re sure Ian is donating extra money to the Federal Government.

No, that is not mathematically true. The Manhattan Institute ran the numbers … 

… and wrote the following:

It’s farcical, however, to suggest that the tax-the-rich pot of gold is large enough to rein in our deficits and finance new spending programs. Seizing every dollar of income earned over $500,000 wouldn’t balance the budget. Liquidating every dollar of billionaire wealth would fund the federal government for only nine months.

We will reiterate our point that this author believes that every politician adding to the debt at this point is acting unpatriotically. We say that knowing that this applies to many people we otherwise like and admire. Our nation’s finances are like a car speeding toward a cliff, and we the people struggle to get politicians to ease up on the gas, while no one has any credible plan to actually stop and turn the vehicle around.

We honestly haven’t heard of a person being this subservient to a powerful man in such an undignified way since we learned about Monica Lewinsky and Bill Clinton. And we are pretty sure that involved less slobbering.

Right?!

Maybe Cuban’s goal is to convince us that the rich aren’t actually very smart?

The full text reads:

Thank you! There’s a gender fluid queer in Zimbabwe that needed a new wig. The NGO on her behalf will need 10 million, the manufacturer will need 20 million, the shipping company owned by a congressman will need 30 million, and the lobbyists lobbying on her behalf will need 40 million.

At the end of the day 100 million will be paid for a $2 wig off Temu but everyone along the way got rich.

We are connoisseurs of sarcasm, and that is one of the better examples of it.

Finally:

*Snort.* 

Seriously, Cuban gives off real ‘Thank you, sir, may I have another?’ vibes.



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