Hyman Hypocrisy #48,382

Yet again, Mark Hyman practices moral relativism as he bemoans the low effective tax rate of Theresa Heinz Kerry.

To this point, Hyman has staunchly defended the Bush tax cuts, at numerous points saying that they had set the economy “on fire.” But Hyman now adopts a populist stance, suggesting that Heinz Kerry doesn’t pay her fair share.

In point of fact, Heinz Kerry and Dick Cheney both pay about the same effective tax rate, and the truth is that both pay a lower percentage of their income in taxes than the average American does because they, as members of the superrich, have access to all sorts of tax shelters, and by making money through investments rather than salary, they have much more flexibility in when they pay taxes on much of their income.

Hyman himself cites the fact that Heinz Kerry can afford the best tax lawyering money can buy in order to lower her taxes. This echoes a statement by George W. Bush himself, who said in August that, “The really rich people figure out how to dodge taxes anyway."

Hmmm…that doesn’t do much to explain why Bush did so much to lower the taxes on the wealthiest Americans. Why waste political capital reducing taxes on people who won’t pay them? Oh, well . . . a topic for another day, perhaps.

The issue here is that Hyman’s attacks are centered on one person. The underlying complaint, that the tax code is unfair, is of course completely valid. But Hyman doesn’t actually buy into that point of view. He simply exploits it to score political points against John Kerry, who, according to Hyman, can’t even talk his wife into paying increased taxes to the federal government.

Putting aside the fact that Heinz Kerry invests huge sums of money in philanthropic projects, the point isn’t whether Heinz Kerry (or Cheney or Bush) pay enough in taxes individually. The problem is a tax code that’s been flattened and loopholed to such an extent that it’s regressive. In a free enterprise economy, labor and capital should be valued (and hence taxed) equally. Now, this isn’t the case. If you make your money working in a factory, you are taxed at an effectively higher rate than if you earn a living drinking martinis by the pool as your dividend checks roll in.

This, as we’ve pointed out in a previous “Counterpoint,” is antithetical to the very nature of democracy. John Kerry proposes some modest steps in the right direction. If Mark Hyman truly believes in the validity of his personal attacks, he’ll endorse Kerry’s tax plan. If he’s a hypocrite, he’ll continue to demagogue the Heinz Kerry issue while still supporting a candidate who slashes taxes for the superrich while sending the sons and daughters of the working class to die halfway around the world.

Gosh, which way do you think Hyman will go?

And that’s The Counterpoint.