“There is a right way and a wrong way, always choose the right way.” Abraham Sabrin (1914-2001)
By now, most Americans may have read or heard about Hunter Biden accepting a plea deal from the IRS for willful failure to pay taxes on more than $2 million in income several years ago. The Wall Street Journal provides an excellent summary of the events that led to Hunter escaping jail time that other taxpayers who committed the same “crime” had to spend in prison.
Now we have a new standard for anyone willfully failing to pay taxes on income, the Hunter Biden deal. In other words, any American who does not pay his/her taxes on income can plead no contest in effect and get off the hook, except for back taxes, interest, and penalties.
Clearly, not paying taxes on time is a “victimless” crime and thus no one should go to prison. And anyone in prison should be released immediately and compensated for spending time in a jail cell because of the income forgone while a prisoner.
And why did it take the IRS five years to investigate Hunter’s failure to pay taxes? A tax issue should be resolved in a year or two, but the 2020 presidential election was on the horizon when the IRS opened the investigation and dragged its feet so Hunter’s tax problems would not be an campaign issue.
Also, two whistleblowers have testified under oath about alleged bribes the Bidens received after Hunter threatened a Chinese businessman, which was revealed in a text message. An allegation the DOJ did not pursue.
We are waiting for the House investigators to release tapes of the Bidens’ conversations with foreign business interests in an alleged shakedown. If and when they are released Biden’s “malarkey” defense of Hunter and his actions will be seen for what it is, an egregious attempt to deflect the corruption of the president and his son that will surpass the Watergate scandal for corruption at the highest level of our government.
Just as the summer of 1973 the hearings uncovered the crimes inside the Nixon White House that was going to lead to his impeachment in 1974, the president resigned in August 1974 to avoid an impeachment and then conviction in the Senate.
Is history about to repeat itself? Time will tell, but Joe Biden’s political future is cloudy at best and the more we learn about Hunter and his financial dealings, it will be unequivocal, Joe is toast.
My latest piece on the economy was published in Fortune, https://fortune.com/2023/03/27/recession-2023-layoffs-tech-finance-unemployment-outlook-fed-rates-murray-sabrin/ This is an update of my 2021 forecast, https://fortune.com/2021/12/09/next-recession-heres-everything-bubble-markets-2021-2022-covid-murray-sabrin/
Murray Sabrin, PhD, is emeritus professor of finance, Ramapo College of New Jersey. Dr. Sabrin is considered a “public intellectual” for writing about the economy in scholarly and popular publications. His new book, The Finance of Health Care: Wellness and Innovative Approaches to Employee Medical Insurance (Business Expert Press, Oct. 24, 2022), and his other BEP publication, Navigating the Boom/Bust Cycle: An Entrepreneur’s Survival Guide (October 2021), provides decision makers with tools needed to help manage their businesses during the business cycle. Sabrin's autobiography, From Immigrant to Public Intellectual: An American Story, was published in November, 2022.