Maine Democrat Senate candidate Graham Platner once lamented the closing of a loophole that allowed military contractors to save money on taxes by spending their time off “banging hookers in Thailand” instead of getting “b*tched” at by their wives back in the United States.
“Spend your leave banging hookers in Thailand instead of getting b*tched at by the wife back home, and you could sell it as avoiding federal income tax,” Platner wrote on Reddit in June 2019. “Once the Afghans started using our paychecks as a personal piggy bank, that whole loophole disappeared.”
Platner made the comments under the name “P-Hustle,” a handle he admitted to using after an archive of his Reddit posts was reported by the Maine Monitor.
“Hell, with those DoD static contracts, those poor bastards literally are just making 65 a year,” Platner posted under the user name “P-Hustle” on a thread. “Sadly, the Afghan tax f***ed everybody on the 330 game.”
That appears to be a reference to IRS regulations allowing a significant portion of income to be exempt if a person spends at least 330 days in a foreign country during a 12-month period. This allows American military contractors to avoid paying higher federal income taxes if they spend significant time overseas.
During the final decade of the United States’ military operation in Afghanistan, contractors said the Afghan government taxed their income significantly more than the bilateral agreements between the two countries allowed. In 2013, the Special Inspector General for Afghanistan Reconstruction found that the Afghan government had levied $93 million in taxes on money that should have been exempt.
Platner went to Afghanistan multiple times, including once with the Maryland Army National Guard as an infantryman in 2010 and later in 2018 as a contractor for the State Department.
The Democrat has faced a barrage of criticism over past posts and statements in his bid to unseat Sen. Susan Collins (R-ME). These comments have ranged from posts calling the Virgin Mary a “skank” to discussions on masturbating in portable public toilets.
“I still have to jerk off every time I sit in a portash*tter… that blue water smell conditioned me,” he wrote in March 2017 in a thread on nostalgic military smells. In another thread titled “GWOT Dick Art,” Platner described graffiti of a penis as “beautiful,” “engorged and veiny,” and moving “towards its penetrative glory,” according to Fox News.
Platner has characterized many of his previous posts as jokes and apologized for his former comments about women. His campaign began with a burst of controversy when it was revealed that he had a tattoo on his chest that closely resembled a Totenkopf, the skull-and-crossbones emblem adopted by an infamous Nazi SS unit.
The Democrat said he received the tattoo while serving in the Marine Corps during a drunken night in Croatia and claimed he was unaware of its historical meaning at the time. The Associated Press later confirmed that he had the tattoo covered once the comparison became public, saying he did not want a symbol associated with hate on his body.
As of this writing, Platner leads Collins by 7.5 points, according to the RealClearPolitics polling average.
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