Bill O’Reilly’s No Spin News and Analysis - Empire State O'Reilly: Paying Taxes

Episode Date: April 17, 2024

Bill talks about paying taxes as a New Yorker. Originally only available in the New York City area, Bill’s Empire State O’Reilly commentary addresses local New York issues, but those issues have implications, impact the country, and mirror problems in other states. Learn more about your ad choices. Visit megaphone.fm/adchoices

So tax day yesterday, and my accountant, Swifty, came to me and said, Hey, O'Reilly, I need you to wire this amount of money so I can pay your taxes. And, you know, I almost wept. That's how much money I had to wire. Because I live, and you live, probably, unless you're out in Jersey or Pennsylvania, Connecticut, in the highest state, highest tax state in the union, New York. No higher state, even California, crazy California, we're higher. And my orders to Swifty, the accountant, is pay it.

Because I was audited three consecutive times during the Clinton administration because it was a political audit. And then after the third time, I have my lawyer write a letter to the IRS, official letter, saying, we're going to sue you if you ordered us again. And that stopped. That's exactly what I did. Because I knew what was happening. And in New York, they will relentlessly pursue you if you don't pay your taxes. And it's not worth it. Pay it. If you don't like it, move. That's why a lot of people are moving to Florida, Texas, Tennessee. So tax burden's a lot lower. That's simple as that.

And when you die, New York State's going to come in and loot your estate. They're going to do that unless you're smart enough to get ahead of it with trusts and all that. So anyway, getting back to the taxes, I pay what I have to pay. I don't like it. And you say, okay, O'Reilly, well, you're not patriotic. And maybe that's true to certain extent. And maybe I'm a little bit selfish here. But I look at it this way in a very practical way.

I'm paying all of this tax to Washington and Albany, and what am I getting for it? New York is a very clear example. We pay an enormous amount of tax to the state, and if you live in New York City, you've got a separate city tax. What services are you getting for that? Have you seen the roads lately? Lately, forever. Have you seen the traffic? to where it's traffic in the country.

There's no traffic regulation here. Have you seen the pollution? The garbage pickup in Manhattan and Brooklyn and the Bronx and Queens? I mean, what are we paying for? For what? I don't know. I don't know what benefit I am deriving

from my money going to Albany. I'm not protected. I have to hire my own security. I won't allow my daughter who lives in Manhattan to ride a subway. I pay for the Uber or whatever it may be. It's too dangerous for a young girl, young woman. What am I getting out of this? Now, the reason that New York State is the highest tax state are twofold. Number one, unions. Everything is unionized in New York. And the contracts, particularly the pensions, are astronomical

because Democrats court the unions by giving them lucrative contracts. This has happened since Tammany Hall. All right, so Labor votes Democrat because Democratic politicians give them very favorable contracts. and the pension obligations alone are staggering. And in order to meet those pensions, the state has to tax working people. That's number one. And number two, entitlements.

Millions of New Yorkers are getting handouts from the state in addition to the federal government. Now, some of those people need it. They're disabled. whatever it may be, it's not their fault, they need the safety net, they should have it. But a lot of them are grifters, and there's no supervision of the grifters. Okay, so they get money, food stamps, housing, whatever, and nobody says, hey, in order to continue to get all that, you have to get a job, or look for a job, or get clean, get off the dope. No. They just give them the money.

and millions and millions and millions of people are taking it. And that is why New York State is a financial mess for working people.