Fox News Headline Suggests US Senator and War Hero Shirks Taxes
A misleading Fox News headline seemed to suggest U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth has dodged Illinois property taxes for years
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Fox News received some fallout on Twitter this past weekend after a Tweet about U.S. Senator Tammy Duckworth (Democrat-Illinois). The Tweet read, “Democrat Tammy Duckworth hasn’t paid property tax on her Illinois home since 2015, report says.”
The Tweet linked to the article, “Democrat Tammy Duckworth slammed for getting tax break on her Illinois home.” According to Fox News, “The U.S. senator’s income is too high to justify her tax break, even though she gets it for being a disabled military veteran, a tax watchdog in Chicago suggests.”
The article references another article by the Chicago Sun-Times, in which complaints are made about property tax breaks in Illinois for certain groups, including for disabled vets.
Duckworth is a war hero and double amputee
Duckworth is not evading taxes. She is accessing legal benefits available to her in the state of Illinois as a disabled war veteran.
In 2004 she suffered an injury when her helicopter was gunned down by Iraqi insurgents during the Iraq War. Resulting from the attack, she lost both of her legs and some mobility in her right arm.
Illinois, like many states, provides housing benefits to disabled vets
The state of Illinois provides an array of housing benefits for veterans. Since 2015, in Illinois, “veterans with a service-connected disability of at least 70% are exempt from paying property taxes on their primary residence.”
According to the Sun-Times article, Duckworth has accessed this tax break since 2015. Although she does pay property taxes on a second home she and her husband own in Virginia. Like Illinois, Virginia also offers tax breaks for disabled vets, but Duckworth’s house there does not qualify because it’s not her primary residence.
How did Twitter respond to the false scandal?
The response on Twitter was brutal.
Tennis star, Martina Navratilova had this to say, “Is that the best you got? You mean our war hero Senator Duckworth should pay taxes when she is not required to do so? Wtf is wrong with you guys?!? Is this what you mean when you say SUPPORT OUR VETERANS?!?”
Mark Hertling tweeted, “Nice job, @foxnews. Very little research would provide you information that all veterans receive a disability assessment on leaving the service & many (most) states provide property tax reduction based on the percentage of disability.”
And from Steve Benyon, “In Illinois, a veteran with a 70% or more disability rating is exempt from property taxes on their primary home. Duckworth is a double amputee.”
Finally from VoteVets, “Let’s get something CLEAR: @TammyDuckworth proudly served our country, lost her legs, and EARNED that benefit. We’d say FOX News is a cancer on our national discourse but that would be an insult to cancer.”
Fox News is full of false outrage
This is yet another fake scandal coming from Fox News. Their pretend outrage at this nonstory is reminiscent of the blame they placed on Starbucks cups for the “war on Christmas.” And does anyone remember their indignation when President Obama saluted a marine with a cup of coffee in his hand? (Why is it always coffee?)
Now they’re trying to drum up public fury over a U.S. war veteran, hero, and Democrat for accessing benefits available to her based on her disability in the state she lives in.
Ironically, they seemed downright proud of President Trump’s tax evasion, saying this in an article from September 2020, “Right-leaning voters (and plenty of others) hate taxes and many no doubt admire Trump’s self-proclaimed skill in minimizing them — as long as it was done legally.”
“As long as it was done legally” is questionable in Trump’s case. But clearly legal in Duckworth’s. Yet for Fox News, it’s admirable for Trump, a billionaire, to pay no taxes at all. But we should all be outraged when a double amputee war hero accesses a benefit available to her and every other disabled vet in the state of Illinois.
As usual, the one thing Fox News isn't lacking is hypocrisy.
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