The Left and Olympic Medals

On Monday the White House Press Secretary Jay Carney said that the President backs the effort to exempt olympic medals from being taxed:

The White House said Monday that President Obama would sign a bill to give tax breaks to Olympic medalists on their cash awards.

“If it were to get to his desk he would support it,” said White House spokesman Jay Carney during the press briefing Monday.

“The president believes that we should support efforts like I think the bill you’re referencing to ensure that we are doing everything that we can to honor and support our Olympic athletes who have volunteered to represent our nation at the Olympic games,” said Carney.

To “Honor and support” the Olympic athletes is a noble goal, and I am not opposed to making the medals  tax free. But it is still rather hilarious that President Obama can rant against millionaires one day, while he supports tax exemptions for wealthy athletes the next. Michael Phelps, just to take one example, has a net worth estimated around $45 Million. Justin Gatlin, someone who hasn’t conquered all possible medal records, has a net worth of around $1 Million.

If we borrow the Democrats’ own vocabulary one could say that President Obama supports tax exemptions for wealthy millionaires instead of supporting tax breaks for small businesses that employ millions of Americans and keep the economy afloat.

My opinion? Let them all, both businesses and athletes, keep as much of their earnings as possible.

Note: I see that ThinkProgress stays true to their left-wing roots by attacking Marco Rubio because he wants to let athletes keep too much of their own earnings.