On Saturday, I blogged about the remarkable degree of ignorance displayed in the left wing blogosphere – and plenty of its pals in mainstream media – regarding blogger Matt Drudge\’s claim that he just paid his ObamaCare penalty – which, unless you think you know more than the United States Supreme Court, is, in fact, a tax. These folks derided Drudge for lying about his payment, on the grounds that the mandate was waived until 2015 (which is when you pay your 2014 taxes).
What they either did not know or chose to ignore is that Drudge is required to pay quarterly taxes for 2014 during the calendar year – and this payment was the first of them. In short, he was right and they were both left and wrong; both fit.
I would have ended it there, but C. Edmund Wright, writing for americanthinker.com, has put out an essay on the subject which – if you can cut through the bile (he\’s a lot angrier and more sarcastic than I am) and look beyond his equation of being a liberal with being a leftist (the two are distinguishable from one another – me being a perfect example) – is well worth reading.
Here are a few excerpts:
Therecent Twitterkerfuffle between Matt Drudge and the Obama/media/academiccomplex over the ObamaCare tax demonstrates in plain view and withoutquestion something many of us have known for years: while theorganized left insist that they are the only ones smart enough to runthe world, they remain astonishingly ignorant of how it works. They\’re even ignorant of how the most fundamental parts oflaws that they champion operate.
Incase you missed it, Drudgetweeted, “Just paid the Obamacare penalty for not \’gettingcovered\’… I\’M CALLING IT A LIBERTY TAX” shortly after filing hisfirst quarterly installment for 2014 as a self-employed person.Apparently unaware of how self-employed people pay taxes – which isneither new nor a secret – liberals at the White House, TalkingPoints Memo, the Huffington Post, and the National Journal allresponded immediately by calling Drudge either a liar or ignorant, orboth. After all, the liberal reasoning went, Drudge couldnot possibly havepaid a cent toward his 2014 ObamaCare “penalty” becauseit\’s not 2015 yet.
Yes, these wizards who would organize everything and everyone lack even a cursory familiarity with the most basic of tax realities.
In none of these attacks on Drudge did it occur to these media maestros how self-employed people are impacted by the tax ramifications of ObamaCare. If Drudge figures he\’ll owe, say, ten million in federal income taxes for 2014 (it’s probably a lot more), he is required to send in a quarter of that now.
This is not some esoteric detail, nor is it overly technical – it is a fact of life that all self-employed people have had to deal with for many decades. And not just the wealthy like Drudge or Rush Limbaugh – quarterly installments impact little shop proprietors and tiny contractors as well.
And yet, there will be no apologies, nor will any of these pseudo-experts be fired or even censured. This is not what happens on the left. When they make obvious and grotesque mistakes, they simply double down, or change the subject, or attack someone on the right personally.
To which I reply, “yep”.
Let me leave you with a thought I often express here: suppose this were the Bush White House saying the same thing about a blogger like, say, Markos Moulitsas Zuniga, who runs dailykos.com.
Do you think if the situation were reversed, mainstream media would either ignore the attacks by the Bush White House and its cadre of likeminded web sites? Reflexively go along with them, despite the fact that the attacks were 100% wrong? Or do you think they would jump all over the Bush White House, and Bush in particular, as being amazingly ignorant of its own signature legislation?
Take your time, base your answer on how media have treated the Bush and Obama presidencies, and get back to m…oh, what\’s that? You already have the answer?
I can\’t say I\’m surprised…
