The Taxman Cometh
Poor Ted Cruz. Just as he is about to get a sympathy break from the revelations at this week’s “Stormy Trial,” out comes this reporting from The Houston Chronicle that he has a tax liability resulting from his podcast deal with iHeartMedia.
While Ted Cruz claims that all proceeds from advertising done during “Verdict with 
Ted Cruz,” his 3-times weekly podcasts over iHeartMedia airwaves go to Truth and Courage PAC, a SuperPAC devoted to his re-election, “… tax experts say Cruz may still need to report [this] income on his tax forms, even if he isn’t pocketing any cash.”
The tax laws, they say, require that this income (something around $630,000 in 2023) is taxed to the person who does the actual work. Since Ted Cruz serves as the podcast’s host, he is the one doing the actual work.
Outrage Alert: Ted Cruz did not report to the IRS any of this income that he generated.
From The Chronicle:
“It’s still going to be his income, because he’s the one who ‘earned it,'” said Brian Galle, a tax law professor at Georgetown University. “This isn’t like a charity that auctions off one hour of free accountant time or something … This was a payment for a series of appearances by Ted Cruz and not by anybody else.”
Oops.
As a ridiculous but sublime analogy, Galle compared the podcasts of Senator Cruz to a nun’s hospital work: “The arrangement is similar to a nun who works in a hospital and sends their pay back to the church because they have taken a vow of poverty. The nun is entitled to a salary for her services, even if she doesn’t collect it.”
I have to admit that hospital analogy cuts a little deep.
Nevertheless, if this is all true, and I’ll bet it is, this should undo all the sympathy heaped on Cruz over TFG’s deal with The National Enquirer to trash out Cruz’s father on its front page in 2016.
It says it right here in the Republican Handbook For 21st Century Campaigning:
“Rule 117. Sleaze cancels sleaze.”
Not the brightest bulb on the string is he? But you knew that.
1He has to have people that are in charge of that kind of thing. How could they mess up this big??
2Probably the first and last time Ted will be (favorably?) compared with a nun in a hospital.
3Does Fled Cruz actually work?
4reastybob, my understanding is that cruz has a very high IQ. But he was also raised to be arrogantly superior. Metaphor – he’s like a Lamborghini with only 1/3 tank of gas. Fastest out of the blocks until it runs out of gas. Then it becomes just an expensive boat anchor.
5Steve, he definitely works tirelessly at being a Dick. (No offense to anybody named Richard, but Rafael’s dickishness deserves a capital D) He’s made the means to an end, effectively the actual end. It’s expected of him, and he does his best to deliver.
Doesn’t matter the subject, total sneering derision isn’t just the delivery mode, but an integral part of any argument he makes. That way anybody inclined to listen to him already knows to be disgusted, offended, or threatened by whoever Rafael’s directing his vitriol at.
Anything remotely logical he says is just fuel for gaslighting.
For folks who may or may not understand the discussion.
But by God, just repeating the sneering talking points with the right amount of derision is empowering and somehow…. comforting to some.
And he’s still a distant second to f**king trump.
6Now THAT f**ker ferdamnsure doesn’t have to work at it, coming so naturally from his malignant narcissism. Talking shit on an endless loop his natural resting state.
But that’s just my opinion and I’m just as full of shit as anybody else.
P.P- there’s good shit and bad shit. In my opinion you’re in the former, just like me, I hope.
7So glad trumpf’s miserable this month. All stinky and everything.
Sucks to be him.
I didn’t think it was possible to think less of him; but then he was one of the few “No” votes on the Ukraine aid bill and that made him irredeemable in my eyes. Lordy, I wish the voters in Texas would wise up and kick him to the curb.
8Steve, thanks buddy. And to keep the metaphor going, yessir, IMHO you’re neck deep in it.
And honestly, while I’m not gonna use the reference we may be comfortable with for everybody, I do believe that the folks that host us and those that hang out with us here regularly are full of something.
And whatever it’s called, it’s good, funny, thought provoking.
And righteous.
And I like it.
9Of course, if we run out of other things cringeworthy, we can always remember that Fled Cruz also brought us the Heller verdict, unleashing the current gun craze. Yay.
10Rafael – just another tart .
11I wonder if Pecker’s sworn testimony means Cruz and Carson could sue AMI for defamation.
The bar for a public person is ‘actual malice,’ and there seems to have been plenty of that. AMI, by the way, is owned, in large part, by a Democrat (Roger Altman) who is on the Bilderburg steering committee.
12RE: #8 “Lordy, I wish the voters in Texas would wise up and kick him to the curb.”
Granted, Beto came close last time, but what is it about Texans that they elected and keep reelecting Fled?
13Steve from Beaverton: like you, the phrase “… he is the one doing the actual work” stood out for me.
My immediate mental image was Rafael Cruz reacting as Maynard G. Krebbs anytime the word “work” came up.
14Completely off-topic, but once again the Salon’s favorite lawyer is poking at weird and dangerous people in politics:
https://text.npr.org/1246998565
Here he’s pointing out that Gateway Pundit is trying to mis-use bankruptcy proceedings.
I’m too old to become a fan of a celebrity … but it seems to be happening anyway.
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