Tag: Disclosure

NPR On Bush’s 36% Tax Rate: “That’s not close to true.”

Unsurprisingly, NPR is out today with more evidence that Jeb Bush isn’t telling the whole story on his tax rates. According to NPR, Bush’s average effective rate is 24.5 percent, not the 36 percent he claims, writing: “That’s a confusing number, and it obscures three decades in which Bush’s income climbed slowly, then explosively.” On top of that, Bush paid a 36 percent tax rate for only 8 of the 33 years of returns released. Financial planner Michael Kitces used slightly different figures and found Bush had a 21.3 percent rate.

Bush’s release may have been branded as an act of transparency but it’s misleading at best — at worst, it’s manipulative.

From NPR:

Jeb Bush released more tax returns than any presidential candidate in history. Over 33 years, the former Florida governor’s campaign said he paid an average effective tax rate of 36 percent.
 
…depending on how you calculate it.

 
That’s a confusing […]

Read more after the jump.

Yahoo: Bush had a 21.3% average tax rate

It turns out Jeb Bush had an average effective tax rate of 21.3 percent according to financial planner Michael Kitces on Yahoo Finance, not the 36 percent he’s been fudging about. Bush only paid more than 36 percent in one year — 2013 — while his rate was less than that in the other 32 years.

As Kitces explains, Bush’s “total tax liabilities are also inflated by the fact that for many years when he was self-employed, he paid self-employment (SECA) taxes. While this is certainly part of one’s total tax liability, it is somewhat confusing to include it in a normal effective income tax rate calculation as these taxes appear on the personal tax return simply because Bush was self-employed.”

Even though Jeb has released 13 years of new tax returns (bringing the total to 33 years), outlets like the Tampa Bay Times and Wall Street Journal are calling him out for his lack of […]

Read more after the jump.

10 More Years of Jeb Bush’s Tax Returns

American Bridge is continuing its steady drip of Jeb Bush’s tax returns ahead of his holiday week news dump. He’s claiming transparency while burying the real news of what’s not in the returns.

The following years are now available for download:

To download the file, please click here.

Read more after the jump.

Bush didn’t pay federal taxes for at least three years, what else is he hiding?

We’ve seen this movie before:  a Jeb Bush news dump headed into a holiday so he can claim transparency while keeping the big news safely buried.  Here’s a start:  Jeb! paid zero federal income tax in at least three years.

American Bridge is giving you a sneak peek at four of Bush’s returns already, and has made them available at the following links:

Additionally, here’s what you can expect Jeb! to not disclose headed into a holiday weekend...

Jeb’s Financial Swamp: Complicated Business Dealings Will Beleaguer Bush

While certain Beltway Bandits freak out at the mere mention of “LLC,” here’s where the real action is: Jeb Bush’s long history of complex financial dealings, shell companies, and ghost corporations. Since leaving office, Jeb’s financial dealings have been positively Romneyesque, with companies like Granada Investment Holdings, Altara Investments, and Columbus Equity Holdings all registered to Bush and with purposes that have not yet been publicly determined or accounted for.

For more background, check out below:

Jeb Bush Has A Web Of Pass-Through LLCs With Undisclosed Clients And Purposes

JebWeb

Read more after the jump.

American Bridge Files FOIA Requests Following New Findings on Scott Walker’s WEDC

New reports from the Wisconsin State Journal and Milwaukee Journal Sentinel show that Scott Walker was aware of the approval of a loan from the Wisconsin Economic Development Corporation (WEDC) to one of his political donors, William Minihan. This latest development directly contradicts “statements by the governor and his aides that he was not aware of the award,” said the Journal Sentinel. Consequently, American Bridge has filed FOIAs for the correspondence between Gov. Walker, his chief of staff, and Minihan and Minihan’s company, Building Committee Inc. American Bridge is working diligently to hold the governor, his office, and his political cronies accountable for this shady loan deal, which has cost Wisconsin taxpayers millions.

See the FOIA requests here and here.

Read more after the jump.

GOPers stepping in e-mail problems

Republicans have been quick to score political points after recent e-mail controversies, but even more GOPers are now being called out for their own transparency issues. Chris Christie,Terry Branstad, Ted Cruz, and Jeb Bush are the latest Republican pots to call the kettle black.

Check out the recent dust-ups over Republican email hypocrisies:

WNYC: “One year ago this week, a taxpayer-funded report traced the George Washington Bridge lane closures to Gov. Chris Christie’s office and determined that a series of reforms were needed to make sure nothing like Bridgegate ever happened again…”

Read more after the jump.

AP Uncovers More Hypocrisy From Jeb Bush

SHOT:

Bush Emails Website: “I Am Posting The Emails Of My Governorship Here… But They’re All Here So You Can Read Them” I am posting the emails of my governorship here. Some are funny; some are serious; some I wrote in frustration. But they’re all here so you can read them and make up your own mind.” [JebBushEmails.com, accessed 3/17/15]

CHASER:

As Florida governor, Jeb Bush used another, previously unreported email address, records show – the newest wrinkle in an evolving debate over public officials’ use of private email accounts.
…
Those emails also include references to another email address, jeb@gencom.net. Bush said through a spokeswoman that he was unaware of the account, although records showed that people wrote to him there more than 400 times between 1999 and 2004.

Read more after the jump.

ICYMI: Jeb Bush’s Baffling Hypocrisy (WEB AD)

Jeb Bush attacked Hillary Clinton’s private e-mails as “a little baffling, to be honest with you” but what’s baffling is why Governor Bush would taunt others given his troubling vulnerabilities about his much more extensive e-mail problem.

The Washington Post reported that Bush compromised security by discussing troop movements on his personal e-mail account, and The New York Times found that it took Governor Bush more than seven years to fully comply with a Florida public records statute on email disclosure — a violation of state law.

Read more after the jump.

Jeb Bush’s Email Hypocrisy Comes Home to Roost

It’s Sunshine Week in Florida, but storm clouds are gathering for Jeb Bush.  Take a look at the press he’s earning for his hypocrisy on e-mail records and transparency.

New York Times:  Mr. Bush delivered the latest batch of 25,000 emails in May 2014, seven and a half years after leaving the Statehouse and just as he started to contemplate a potential run for the White House, according to a newly disclosed letter written by his lawyer.

A Florida statute governing the preservation of public records requires elected officials, including the governor, to turn over records pertaining to official business “at the expiration of his or her term of office.”

“If they’ve been adding to it, it’s a technical violation of the law,” said Barbara A. Petersen, president of the First Amendment Foundation, a nonprofit, nonpartisan group in Florida that advocates access to government information.

Read more after the jump.