Six cows are helping millionaire Sen. Bill Nelson (D-FL) dodge $43,000 in property taxes on his 55 acres of land on the Indian River, reports the Tampa Bay Times.
While no one begrudges any American from striving to pay as few dollars in taxes as are legally feasible, the fact that Sen. Nelson, an ardent supporter of President Barack Obama’s big government agenda, performs agricultural gymnastics to avoid helping fund Mr. Obama’s deficit-exploding programs is, well, hypocritical. So says Sen. Nelson’s 2012 Senate Republican challenger, conservative rising star Rep. Connie Mack (R-FL).
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In a statement, Rep. Connie Mack said:
With his astonishing hypocrisy on taxes, Senator Bill Nelson has exemplified the term ‘limousine liberal’ — someone who says one thing and does another. Not only has Senator Nelson cried out that local and county workers are being robbed by tax loopholes, we now know the identity of that robber is none other than Bill Nelson himself. Senator Nelson’s six cows may have found him a legal way to avoid paying the taxes that help pay the county workers he claims to defend, but it is certainly the despicable and dishonorable way.
Even in 1999 when Brevard County asked Senator Nelson for his fair share, he fought them in court. Senator Nelson has made a career in the U.S. Senate based on recklessly spending other peoples’ money to help county governments, even while manipulating the system to line his own pockets. If Bill Nelson were to sum up his career fighting for his version of ‘tax fairness,’ he would say, ‘Do as I say, not as I do.’
In the wake of the tax-dodging revelation, Sen. Nelson defended his actions thusly: “I pay all the taxes owed on the pastureland,” says Nelson. “This pasture has been in my family since 1924, and it’s been a cow pasture since 1950.”
While Sen. Nelson may pinch pennies with his own tax dollars, he’s been more than willing to spend yours. In 2010 alone, Sen. Bill Nelson sponsored or cosponsored 164 earmarks totaling $172,181,700.
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