GOP senator calls out Lady Gaga, Kanye on taxes

Sen. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) called out tax breaks for charities and economic development on Tuesday, saying they often function merely as giveaways to the rich and the powerful 

In a new report, Coburn, who’s retiring at the end of the year, takes issue with charities connected to celebrities like Lady Gaga and Kanye West, saying those nonprofits actually give away very little to the causes they are supposed to support. 

He also cites the musician Ani DiFranco, who used tax breaks to help build new headquarters for her record label. The project manager for DiFranco called the use of the incentives “kind of cruel,” and a handout from “big government.”

Other examples Coburn found of the rich taking advantage of the tax code: Pro sports teams using tax breaks to help refurbish their stadiums, and the entertainer Kevin Jonas potentially getting an incentive for renting out his house for the Super Bowl. 

Coburn released those findings, and many more in his 320-page “Tax Decoder,” released Tuesday.

“The tax code has become a powerful and elaborate system of rewards and punishments used to coerce Americans and manipulate the economy,” Coburn wrote.  

“This complicated mess is more just unfair, it is a burden on working families and businesses.”

Coburn also called out his fellow lawmakers on his way out, for getting ready to yet again restore dozens of tax breaks.

The Oklahoma Republican has openly fought with other prominent figures on the right, most notably the anti-tax crusader Grover Norquist, for his willingness to scrap tax breaks for deficit reduction. Others in the GOP believe that any such revenue should be used to reduce tax rates.