Tom Cotton wants to tax 'liberal' universities for teaching history accurately

[turbinetree]

By Oliver Willis -May 11, 2021 10:53 AM152

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) once referred to slavery as 'the necessary evil upon which the union was built.'

Sen. Tom Cotton (R-AR) appeared on Fox News on Monday night to give the right-wing network an exclusive on his proposal to tax the endowments of "liberal" colleges and universities.

On "Fox News Primetime," Cotton told host Brian Kilmeade, "I'm going to introduce legislation tomorrow, that I'm introducing to the American people tonight on your show, that's going to tax endowments of the biggest, richest, and frankly most liberal universities in America."

Cotton said that money in university endowments, charitable donations to the institutions held in funds that generate income used for capital investment, research, scholarships, teachers' salaries, and other purposes, amounts to "tens of billions of dollars sitting in their endowment. They pay almost nothing in federal taxes, and they charge full freight to kids to take Zoom classes, and Brian, this is at a time when they are also actively indoctrinating students to hate America, to believe it's an oppressive, racist nation.

Published with permission of The American Independent Foundation.

https://americanindependent.com/tom-cotton-ivy-league-universities-liberal-endowment-tax-fox-news/

I want assholes and supporters of sedition to be locked up and have the key thrown away, and if they are elected they also don't get any pay from taxpayers and have to pay back said taxpayers ......

[jcgoldie]

1. churches too?

[turbinetree]

3. Second that motion,,,,

[Moostache]

5. Amen!

no pun intended...

Churches should be taxed at normal income rates, just like hedge fund profits and billionaire wealth.

Do THAT and the trillions in necessary spending become very much less problematic in any sense.

[dhol82]

9. + another one

If the churches want to play politics, they should pay for the privilege.

[smirkymonkey]

20. Absolutely!

[Aristus]

2. The guy who says slavery was "necessary" says American is not racist...

Uh-huh...

[Moostache]

7. Cotton is one of many who are infected with such thinking...

They are incapable of recognizing it too.

America the idea - government of the people, for the people and by the people; a secular republic - is the beacon in the dark for the world (AND AMERICANS LIVING NOW) to aspire to, to respect and to cherish.

America the country - the actual deeds and actions of our representatives and by proxy by all of us as citizens - is a racist shithole with enough bloody hands and prejudice and hate to cover the globe several times over.

Those who cherish the idea can see the reality and understand that we have fallen short of the potential and example of our heritage and founding principles more often than not throughout our history.

Those who cherish power and authority over others cannot understand why anyone would admit the truth, let alone see if through the propaganda and BS from the ruling class throughout history.

There are indigenous peoples throughout the Western Hemisphere that have been brutalized, robbed and shoved aside since the colonial period and straight through the American experiment. That does not make America the idea any less magnificent or less of a goal...it just acknowledges that the stories of old are just that - stories and that if this nation (or any other conceived in its original image) is to rise to that actual shining example of what CAN be, then they must be willing to examine the past and strip off the veneer, look beyond the blinders and learn from it.

Only then, can America the nation hope to rise to its birth rite and stand aside America the idea.

[IrishAfricanAmerican]

13. 👆🏽👆🏽👆🏽 THIS!

[atreides1]

19. It's a family tradition

His family owned slaves and betrayed the US!!!

[greenjar_01]

4. This is not remotely how the political exception to non-profit tax status works

This is clownish fan service for conservative wackadoodles.

[Happy Hoosier]

6. He knows it is going nowhere, of course....

It would be blatantly Unconstitutional to impose a tax so explicitly aimed at a political viewpoint. This is all for the Rubes back home.

[DFW]

8. Exactly right

This is a campaign slogan, not anything he thinks will become law.

[gratuitous]

10. But for some reason

Nobody ever worries that knuckleheads like Sen. Cotton (the bobble-throated slapdick from Arkansas - thank you, Charlie Pierce) will cost the Republicans votes by advancing racist grandstanding like this. Nobody in the Republican party says, "Hey Tom, knock it off, you're too extreme."

[Happy Hoosier]

11. Sadly, it's because racism is the stock and trade of the GQP.

It's just that they no longer keep it quiet.

[dalton99a]

15. +1. Good description of the asshole

[DFW]

17. That's the trouble with today's Republican Party

For them, Tom Cotton is NOT extreme. He is MAINstream.

They are all merrily jumping off the edge of the flat earth while the rest of the world asks, "Suzy Creamcheese, honey, what's got into ya?"

[Dawson Leery]

12. Taxing based upon ideology?

100% unconstitutional! Of course, the cons lie every time they speak so their claims of following the Constitution were always empty.

[dalton99a]

14. Heck, make everyone sign an oath of loyalty to Donald Trump

Goddamn loathsome motherfucker

[C_U_L8R]

16. So he's going to tax the Sackler and Koch endowments too?

Good luck with that, dumbass.

[Midnight Writer]

18. By announcing the intention is to tax liberal universities he is laying grounds for a lawsuit.

He knows this is going nowhere.

He is a cynical, lying manipulator.

[Vinca]

21. Didn't he graduate from one of the demon left-leaning schools?

These people are so lame. It gets tiresome.

[TomSlick]

23. Harvard. Both undergrad and law.

He can't be as dumb as he makes out. Then again, no one can be that dumb.

[GulfCoast66]

24. That the most evil part. He is not that dumb. He knows this will go no where

But he knows his hardcore supporters are that dumb. Or uneducated I should say. I’ve known plenty of uneducated men who were not innately stupid. Some overcome their lack of education. My grandfather from Lafayette County, Arkansas was born in 1906. Had a 3rd grade education. By the time I was born in 66 he was a somewhat successful man with wide ranging interest and a developed sense of humor. But I’ll admit that is rare.

In my experience once a person hits 30 as a rube it will stay with them till they die.

[TomSlick]

25. Concur.

Our boy Tom ain't as dumb as he makes out. Like Sen. John (no relation) Kennedy (R, LA), he plays dumb to appeal to his rube base.

The rube base knows that our boy Tom is well educated. Ergo, if Tom agrees with them they must not be so dumb after all.

[GulfCoast66]

26. Huh, I never thought of the second part of your assessment.

They know he is smart so thinking like them proves their intelligence.

Rubes indeed. You just know he laughs at them when alone with his fellow Ivy League authoritarians.

[struggle4progress]

22. It really hadn't occurred to me to enslave Tom and his family,

but if he says it's just a necessary evil, then (even though I'm not certain he'd convince me of that) I suppose we could give it serious consideration: I'd say he does seem to exhibit a sort of lazy shiftless ne'er-do-well demeanor suggesting a man of low morals and criminal tendency, who might profit from the discipline offered by a chain gang