Washington Babylon — July 28, 2008, 7:33 am

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett: Practicing what he preaches

Congressman Roscoe Bartlett of Maryland hates taxes. A few years back, he signed on to a Republican Liberty Caucus Position Statement that called for a total overhaul of the tax system, including abolition of the capital gains tax and the inheritance tax.

Now Bartlett “is refusing to release income tax returns that would show whether he paid taxes on several property sales that he failed to report on personal financial disclosure forms.”

Spokeswoman Lisa Wright says the 6th District Republican paid any required corporate gain taxes on the sales. But Wright says Bartlett won’t release his tax returns because he isn’t legally required to. The Frederick News-Post reported earlier this week that property records indicate Bartlett underreported or failed to report on his federally mandated disclosure forms roughly $1 million in property sales since 2004.

The Liberty Caucus statement on taxes that Bartlett signed on to lauded “personal responsibility.” Here’s Bartlett assuming personal responsibility:

Mr. Bartlett, 82, has acknowledged the discrepancies and has said the errors are the result of his inattentiveness and confusion by others, including a staff member whom Mr. Bartlett said misread his handwritten notes. [His spokeswoman] said the staff member mistook the numeral 4 for a 1. The error caused Mr. Bartlett to under-report the selling price of a house.

Share
Single Page

More from Ken Silverstein:

From the June 2012 issue

The government’s man

How to read the r??©sum??© of a terrorist expert

Washington Babylon September 29, 2010, 11:37 am

Signing Out

Get access to 163 years of
Harper’s for only $19.97

United States Canada

CATEGORIES

THE CURRENT ISSUE

June 2013

How to Make Your Own AR-15

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

Long Division

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

The Separating Sickness

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

view Table Content

FEATURED ON HARPERS.ORG

[Editor's Note]
Why the AR-15 rifle is here to stay,
the conspiracy theories of Room 237,
and more
[Perspective]
The firearm as emblem of personal sovereignty
“Let’s review our recent national paroxysm about guns, shall we?”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Report]
How to Make Your Own AR-15

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“Even if federal gun-control advocates got everything they wanted, they couldn’t prevent America’s most popular rifle from being made, sold, and used. Understanding why this is true requires an examination of how the firearm is made.”
Illustration by Jeremy Traum
[Harper's Finest]
Wherein the author enrolls in a clinical drug trial
“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science.”
Illustration by Ernst Kreidolf
[Report]
Broken Heartland

= Subscribers only.
Sign in here.
Subscribe here.

“During the early 1990s, farmers throughout the Great Plains began to notice a decline in their wells. Irrigation systems from the Dakotas to Texas dipped, and, in some places, have been abandoned entirely.”
Illustration (detail) by Jeffery Smith

Years of consideration preceding the inclusion of the word “phat” in Random House’s 1996 Compact Unabridged Dictionary:

4

Scientists created crash helmets that stink when cracked and fruit flies to whom blue light smells delicious.

In Belize, a construction company bulldozed a 2,300-year-old Mayan temple to make road fill.

Subscribe to the Weekly Review newsletter. Don’t worry, we won’t sell your email address!

HARPER’S FINEST

Article — From the May 2007 issue

Manufacturing Depression

By

“This is the heart of the magic factory, the place where medicine is infused with the miracles of science, and I’ve come to see how it’s done.”

Subscribe Today