Thursday, February 05, 2009

I guess some things only apply to "regular" people

Taxes. It's such a dirty word. So far President Obama's administration hasn't been so much for "change" as it has been for (insert annoying Steve Urkel voice) "Oops. Did I not pay that?"

Let's just recount some examples. We have former senator Tom Daschle, who had been Obama's choice to reform the US health-care system as secretary of health and human services, who withdrew from the nomination over his past failure to pay more than $100,000 dollars in taxes. Y'all, that's $100 G's. That's a lot of money!

Then, we have Nancy Killefer who withdrew her name in the running to be the federal government's chief performance officer because of her past failure to pay unemployment taxes for household help at her D.C. home. I have help at my house. His name is Jeremy!

Now we have a report that the Senate committee canceled a session to consider President Obama's nomination of Rep. Hilda Solis to be labor secretary when it came out that yesterday her husband paid about $6,400 to settle tax liens against his business, liens that had been outstanding for as long as 16 years. I'm glad he and his wife sense the urgency of that April 15th tax deadline that looms over the rest of us!

And let's most definitley not forget the most intriguing example Obama has to offer us, Tim Geithner, our newest Treasury secretary, and now head of the IRS. He decided to let the cat out of the bag himself when he disclosed that he had just forgotten to pay his personal taxes between 2001 and 2004. Somehow he was mistaken and “missed” the annual notes from his employer where he was told about his obligation to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes , a document he had to sign every year in order to get reimbursed. Does anyone else see the complete irony in the fact that the man who is now in charge of the Internal Revenue Service and our tax money did not even pay his own taxes?

So I'm guessing that there must be two sets of rules in play here: If you are wealthy and know people in high places, you can NOT pay your taxes, and still be able to hold a government position. If you are just a regular person, like myself, you will get taxed out the wazoo and still not have much to show for it. I dare you to underpay the government and see how quickly they will track you down for their pennies. Probably faster than bloodhound can track a escaped prisoner. Don't try it for real, but I'm guessing it would be much faster than 16 years.

As long as we're all clear on the new rules....

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