That's the system we have, so he uses it. How many people voluntarily send extra money to the IRS?

He's saying he'd like to change the system. In the new system, he wouldn't have these deductions, nor would anyone else.

I'm not seeing any hypocrisy at all.

So Bernie cheated the government out of it's money?

Well, you're missing the "tell": when anyone uses the term, "progressive", they mean to take more of your money for what they want.

And no, Sen. Sanders' increased taxation will not solve problems. He and Congress (the House has this job) aren't even establishing a budget. What the hell makes anyone - yes, you - think more money funneled into government will actually do?

Based on the government's effectiveness in using our tax dollars for any reason (military, charity, disaster relief, etc.) why would anyone want to reward them MORE TAX MONEY?

Hah! I knew Bernie was a prize hypocrite.

What a choice this year! We have an egomaniac with no governmental experience, a theocrat who gives everybody the creeps, and an 80 year old commie running on the Santa Claus platform. Hillary is looking good in comparison.

1) Bernie's money handling is apparently abysmal. I wouldn't take one tax return as indication of anything.

2) If you start with the "governmental experience" nonsense, you might want to say what advantage this supposedly conveys. Sanders, for instance, has a bunch. Mr. Obama has little. Take your pick.

Bernie also seems to have done little work throughout his life and prided himself on being a slacker.

Bernie for...President?!!

Um...no.

Hillary? looking good? even in comparison?

“I think she’s absolutely soulless,” she said. “I think she’s incompetent.”

http://thefederalist.com/2016/04/18/feminist-camille-pagila-i-think-hillary-clinton-is-soulless-incompetent/

Remember, the worst thing you can do to a socialist like Bernie is to make him live under a socialist government run by people who are not his friends. That doesn't end well. It never ends well.

"Bernie also seems to have done little work throughout his life and prided himself on being a slacker."
I read that he was living on unemployment during at least one of his early campaigns.
*
I think Bernie would be an absolute disaster for our country, but I can't fault him for taking tax deductions. There are plenty of tax deductions that I'm against in principle... but you can bet I'll take them if they're available to me.

"I'm not seeing any hypocrisy at all."

I am. The issue isn't Bernie taking advantage of legal deductions. It's his claim that it's immoral for other people to do the same. If he doesn't make that claim but simply says that deductions should be eliminated, then it may be a bad idea, but at least it's an honest one.

But the real problem here is what often happens with Sanders. He did a pretty good job of identifying the target, but then he took aim and, like Maxwell Smart, he missed it by that much. The thing he danced all around here is cronyism. As the NRO article points out, that 27% average marginal rate for the wealthy is the highest rate that anyone in the U.S. pays. The problem, as we found out during the first two years of the Obama administration (before the media succeeded in memory-holing the issue), is that the politically well-connected simply don't pay income taxes. After all, who's going to prosecute them? Certainly not their bought-and-paid-for government pals.

I'm with Cousin Dave. The issue isn't taking deductions while saying the system should be changed. The issue is taking deductions while claiming they are immoral. According to Bernie Sanders, Bernie Sanders is immoral.

More about Teh BERN's wife:

http://heatst.com/politics/catholic-parishioners-investigate-jane-sanders-for-federal-loan-fraud/

That's a fairly serious crime, a possible 30 year sentence and a $1 million fine.

LOL - anti-tax conservatives rail against anti-tax liberal!

Corporations and the wealthy are lauded for their ability to beat the tax man until their political enemy does the same.

Only on the internet would this be considered an actual argument. America, get ready for another Democratic president.

I'm impressed Gog. Sanders is anti-tax? Democratic?

I don't think there's been an anti-tax Democrat since JFK, at least not at the national level. Maybe Jim Webb. I wonder what Ron Wydon's take on taxation is. He seems to be an anti-intrusive-government Democrat. I don't know how intrusive he thinks taxation or mountains of tax law is. Hmm.

Trump = Hitler
Cruz = Taliban
That guy from Ohio = ?
Hillary = Nixon
Sanders = McCarthy

Given these choices, I'm going with the socialist Jew. What the hell.

"According to the Tax Foundation, the average federal income-tax rate for a couple making $200,000 to $500,000 in 2014 was 15.2 percent."

This is really shoddy analysis.

For 2015 the 33% tax bracket was for earnings between $230,450 and $411,500.

They are comparing Bernie's taxes on $205,271, which all falls below the 33% bracket to the average taxes for a group that includes people with earnings that are taxed more than his.

That more than explains a ~1.5% differential between his taxes and the average taxes from that group.

This is a hatchet job and nothing more.

If they were really interested in doing a fair analysis they would have compared Bernie's taxes to people who fall within the same maximum tax bracket as he does... not smuggle people in who are taxed at a higher rate because they earn double what her earns and then act shocked that they pay slightly higher taxes on average.

Quick correction, these are for the 2014 tax returns so the brackets are slightly different.

The 33% bracket for 2014 for married people filing jointly was $226,851-$405,100.

While the numbers are slightly different the point still stands.

Bernie who is at maximum in the 28% tax bracket is being compared against people in the 33%, 35%, and 39.6% brackets and this article is complaining that there is a delta of less than 2% in tax burden.

To be honest, based entirely upon the differences in the brackets one would expect the gap between Bernie and the average to be even larger than that.

This story is nonsense.