Sweet Irony: Kerry Hailed Legislation Ending 'Blatant Tax Evasion'

Ah, such laws are merely for the little people, not the wealthy, hypocritical elitists like John Kerry.

Now that Sen. John Kerry has cut a check for something in the neighborhood of $500,000 to cover use and excise taxes on his new $7 million high-seas plaything, Isabel, he gets to sail off into the sunset in peace. But not before we bring you one final postscript.

As you know, the senior senator purchased his New Zealand-built, 76-foot floating palace back in March and ported her in Rhode Island, a state which repealed its boat sales and use tax back in 1993. By doing so, the senator could dodge some $437,500 in state sales taxes and an annual excise tax bill of $70,000.

Of course, Kerry insisted all along that he would be paying whatever dough he owed, but we notice he didn’t fork it over until four embarrassing days after the Track first broke the story!

Which is rather ironic, considering that back in March, when Kerry was taking delivery of his new yacht, he was applauding passage of legislation designed to end “blatant tax evasion.”

The new law, Kerry said, would put an end to a system that allowed “powerful people to hide assets abroad and evade our tax laws.”

“It repulsed me,” he continued, rather dramatically, “that while the average American plays by the rules and pays taxes, some of the biggest corporations avoid paying their fair share.”

One minor quibble with the item is I doubt it was Kerry who cut the check paying off the tab. We suspect it came from his wife's trust fund.