You Paid For It: Sen. McCaskill's Air Claire Hypocrisy

All Americans should thank Senator Claire McCaskill for showing – yet again – how the liberal economic “jobs” plan works for politicians instead of people. 

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A few years ago after her election to the U.S. Senate, McCaskill and her husband bought an airplane to use as their own charter company. She then paid her own company using tax payer dollars from her Senate office budget to fly back and forth to Missouri for official and political events. 

Liberals seem to love this kind of business: funded by tax payer dollars, with no bid contracts, entirely self-dealing, and with complete secrecy.

Is it just me, or does that also remind you of the so-called Stimulus bill McCaskill helped President Obama pass in 2009?

Flash forward to a few weeks ago when McCaskill was confronted about her sketchy business deal.  McCaskill did what any good taxpayer-subsidized businessperson might do. She sold the plane and shut the scheme down. 

After all, it’s tough to run an airplane charter business without taxpayer payments. 

It gets worse for Air Claire.  The public realized (even the press) that using taxpayer dollars to pay yourself is wrong. The pressure was unbearable and McCaskill whipped out her personal checkbook and re-paid the federal treasury with an $88,000 check. It’s shameful when you game the system to the point of being politically forced to pay back a taxpayer subsidy. 

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As I watched the Air Claire story develop – I started www.AirClaire.com to help people stay informed – I knew there were more questions not being asked. 

McCaskill had been keeping the plane in Delaware and Illinois, two states that do not impose personal property taxes. Well, Missouri does. So, was McCaskill, a committed liberal millionaire who advocates soaking the rich, actually dodging taxes?

Yes, Air Claire was trying to pay fewer taxes.  Caught again and pressured by the public, McCaskill pulled out her checkbook and wrote a check for over $300,000 for back taxes on the plane.

Not only was McCaskill paying her own company taxpayer dollars to fund her travels, she avoided paying taxes to the state she supposedly serves.

This is a trend with liberal power-players. Remember how Tom Daschle and Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner were exposed for skipping out on taxes? It’d be different if these politicians didn’t preach for higher taxes, but these hypocrites love higher taxes for their constitutes yet hate to pay up themselves.

And for McCaskill it gets even worse. As it is with any cover-up and scandal, more facts are coming to light.

The public is learning that McCaskill’s wealth is derived from Medicaid/Medicare payments from nursing homes that she and her husband own, and from federal and state tax credits from low income housing schemes used by the over 280 limited-liability corporations which she or her husband own. She also may have voted on HUD programs from which her family benefits, plus the family owns a Bermuda re-insurance company.

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Now, no conservative I know begrudges success and even wealth when made fairly and honestly.  However, McCaskill is the classic hypocrite: she votes with Obama on bailouts, takeovers of financial industry, Obamacare, his bloated budgets and the Stimulus.  Then, Air Claire flies home and says she is for “transparency” and cutting spending.

We need real integrity in Washington. We need action that matches rhetoric. At the very least, we need politicians looking to serve their constituents, not their own pocketbooks.

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