The optics of Hillary Clinton's estate tax hypocrisy are "terrible," Bloomberg columnist Al Hunt said Tuesday.
Bloomberg reported:
Bill and Hillary Clinton have long supported an estate tax to prevent the U.S. from being dominated by inherited wealth. That doesn’t mean they want to pay it.
To reduce the tax pinch, the Clintons are using financial planning strategies befitting the top 1 percent of U.S. households in wealth. These moves, common among multimillionaires, will help shield some of their estate from the tax that now tops out at 40 percent of assets upon death.
Voters may have a problem with a potential presidential candidate who spends a lot of time talking about the problems of the middle class while hobnobbing with the "rich and privileged," Hunt said.
"It's part of a larger problem that I think she has," Hunt said. "I think it does show the estate tax is not about inter-generational, entrepreneurial transfers as supporters say. I don't think there's any ethical problem here. I think the optics are terrible, though. I think once you put that together with Hillary giving speeches for $200,000 to Goldman-Sachs. People start to say, 'Wait a minute, is she one of us or not?'"