Self-described Democrat and unrealistic presidential candidate Cornell West has more than half a million dollars in past-due taxes dating back to 2005, a review of records by the Daily Beast shows. A vocal advocate for the poor who asserts rich people need to pay more taxes to ensure a healthy society, West owes a total of $543,778.78 to the federal government; a past-due tax bill of around $170,000 for local taxes in Los Angeles County that had not been paid since 2012 was settled this past June.
A college professor and author, West is running for the Democratic presidential nomination in a campaign run by Moscow-linked 2016 spoiler Jill Stein.
“Taxation without representation is now reflected in policies that allow the wealthy to be coddled and under-taxed while the perennially poor, working poor, and ‘new poor’ are ignored and rendered invisible,” West wrote in his 2012 book The Rich and the Rest of Us with co-author Tavis Smiley “Economic justice in America has been overshadowed by greed, because unequal taxation benefits the rich at the expense of everyone else.”