Senator John McCain is a gambler. If I'd known that right away I would have immediately seen what was wrong with his tax returns.
I am a tax attorney, so a tax return means more to me than it would to most. I reviewed McCain's tax returns as a basic check on the candidates. You can look at McCain's 2006 and 2007 tax returns for yourself. The tax returns are below a lot of verbiage about his charitable activities.
According to a New York Times article of September 27, 2008 "For McCain and Team, a Host of Ties to Gambling," reported by Jo Becker and Don VanNatta Jr., McCain gambled at the MGM Grand in May 2007.
Apparently McCain is a habitual gambler; he usually plays craps. He even says, "I am a gambling man."
Gambling has tax implications. According to IRS Publication 17, "Your Federal Income Tax", 2007 edition, page 89 "Gambling Winnings. You must include your gambling winnings in income on Form 1040, line 21. If you itemize your deductions on Schedule A (Form 1040), you can deduct gambling losses you had during the year, but only up to the amount of your winnings." In other words, you can't subtract your losses from your winnings and just not report. You have to report the winnings, and then claim the losses.
But McCain's tax returns say nothing about gambling winnings or losses.
As a casino gambler, McCain is likely to have lost more than he won. But by not reporting his winnings, the different percentage calculations built into the tax calculation are thrown off, and if he gambled much at all, he has underpaid his tax. The amount of understatement of tax may be minimal, but that's not the point.
The real purpose of preparing his tax return and omitting the gambling winnings is so that people would not know how much he gambled. If he won $200,000 playing craps in Las Vegas, it would make a difference in the way voters viewed his suitability as a presidential candidate.
There are circumstances under which the tax returns could be correct, such as McCain gambled once in 2007, not at all in 2006, and lost everything the one time he gambled. Such an explanation is unlikely in light of McCain's alleged long history of gambling.
I think we are looking at tax returns calculated to hide an aspect of the candidate. My 35 years of experience in taxes tells me these tax returns are wrong, and we do not know the true scope of McCain's gambling or of his potential obligations to gambling enterprises.
If it doesn't hit the radar screen, he doesn't have to respond.
He's predictable in his reckless impulsivity, and a self-annointed "gambling man" should not be gambling with America's future.
a. Selecting Palin to rejuvenate his campaign and garner women's votes.
b. Cunducting smear attacks rather than addressing the issues facing America.
c. Hiding at the side and mostly behind the skirts of Palin, his running mate.
d. Avoiding full disclosure of his health records.
e. Etc., etc., etc.
lay on her sick bed. And guess what he cheated with wife # two on wife # one....
Please Query
most clueless post of the day (unless you are ignorant of the facts, of course)...
to making decisions about foreign policy. hhmm.
a. Selecting Palin to rejuvenate his campaign and garner women's votes.
b. Cunducting smear attacks rather than addressing the issues facing America.
c. Hiding at the side and mostly behind the skirts of Palin, his running mate.
d. Avoiding full disclosure of his health records.
e. Etc., etc., etc.
Why won't he release all his medical records - not a small selected portion of them for a three hour period?
What is there to hide? Whatever it is, it's obviously a deal breaker!
May be Palin did not slip when she said Palin and Mccain Administration
http://www.televisiontunes.com/Maverick.html
www.ObamaMinute.com
http://offthebus.ning.com/profiles/blog/show?id=2136616%3ABlogPost%3A18069
The blogger points out that Ms Palin may be mistaking Maverick for the wannabe mustang without muscle launched in the 70s as a cooler version of a Ford Falcon.
It would seem lame if it were not so dangerous