GOP Rep. John Flemming (R-LA) Whines About Making $400K

http://thinkprogress.org/economy/2011...

• Category

  News & Politics

[trashcan678]

I am certain that every starving child in the world would love just to eat for one day and this guy spends $200,000 on food for his family and then has the balls to call it class warfare. It is not class warfare, it is a war between right and wrong, no one deserves to starve just because "they don't work hard enough." I'd like to see this guy do half of the work some people do who make only $20k a year.

[senorjiveturkee]

Haha gotta love the rich-guy cop out "Hey, I may be an asshole but I'm a JOB CREATOR!"

[041882]

As far as spending 200K on a family goes, I don't have an opinion either way. I don't know his circumstances or his life. What if he's supporting extended family? What if there are special needs (e.g. medical or psychiatric)? There are so many things I don't know that I really don't feel I have any place to judge. Whenever I do it tends to bite me pretty hard so I don't know. I don't want to demonize someone when I don't understand what they're going through you know?

[041882]

Thanks I was there earlier and I was able to find his stuff. See: clerkdothousedotgovslashpublic­_discslashfinancial-pdfsslash2­011slash8204174.pdf The data he's submitted is pretty ambiguous It doesn't say whether the income is revenue or profit, gross or net. Doesn't even give a specific number (I checked his amendments too).

[royalcrown]

I dunno man, an error message comes up. Try clerkdothousedotgovslashpublic­_discslashfinancialdotaspx. I don't think he's evading taxes, I don't even think he's really lying so much as casting the data in such a light that it underrepresents how much he makes. At this point it sounds like you think 200k is a reasonable amount to spend on a family so I don't really know what to say. If most Americans can raise a fine family on 50k before taxes how can he possibly need 200k after taxes?

[041882]

If he's being dishonest it would be unfair. If he's evading taxes then the collective anger against him is both well placed and justified. I just don't feel comfortable accusing him of that without evidence. I also see that there's a lot working against him - the fact that he has more money than most people (but doesn't want an increase in taxes), the fact that he's a republican, and so on. There is so much more going on here than just what he's saying.

[041882]

I was able to get my pdf link into the comments. If you can find the data at least tell me the name of the article/document so I can verify what you're saying. As far as what he "needs" to feed his family - there are so many things in communication that can lead to unnecessary conflict. For example, when he says "feed his family" is he talking about just food? Is he talking about food, clothing and shelter? What does he mean?

[royalcrown]

YT won't let me put links in comments but the federal government's website lists it. He's wrong on several levels (who needs 200k to feed a family?) but I'm not saying he did anything illegal, or that there was any "wrongdoing." He's just twisting the numbers to make it seem like he's poorer than he is. The sad part is that even if he's not lying, he's far from poor. 400k gives him 2+ franchises a year after he's spent several times the average person's pre-tax income "feeding his family"

[041882]

While I agree that the tax code is convoluted and messy, I don't see evidence of any wrong doing on his part. Check out the pdf link I posted. Opening a new franchise can cost between $100,000 - $300,000. He's stating that he has $400,000 to play with to cover upgrades, repairs and expansion. If that's actually the case I understand his perspective with not wanting to be taxed on $400,000 when he has flow through profit and loss.

[041882]

@royalcrown

Taking money out of your corporate entity isn't illegal. Furthermore, while an LLC is a distinct entity it can be taxed different ways. So I can have an LLC that's taxed as a partnership, S corp, C corp, etc. From what he's stated he has an LLC where the income flows through to his personal return. If I'm not mistaken, that means he's got an LLC taxed as a partnership. It also means that he takes out money (owner draws) to pay expenses instead of a salary.

[041882]

@royalcrown

The definition of net income doesn't change based on whether he takes money out of his business or not. All of the documentation that I've found shows revenue. I'll need you to provide the source you're referring to that states that this income is profits. I'll also need you to delineate whether the data shows gross and net profit. I'm confused as to how you can say he's lying without this information (and even with it as there's a lot we don't know).

[royalcrown]

On further inspection it turns out he doesn't declare an income, but instead takes money from his company directly. So really he's making far more and lying even more about his income. This is a gigantic trainwreck, and is a reminder as to how convoluted people will make situations in order to obfuscate what is actually going on.