Rep. Chaffetz proposes firing federal workers who are tax cheats

If you work for Uncle Sam, but you don’t pay him after he pays you, look out for Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R- Utah).

“Fire Federal Employees Who Are Not Paying Their Federal Income Taxes.” That’s the headline on a news release Chaffetz issued Wednesday, announcing legislation that would terminate federal workers who have a “seriously delinquent tax debt.” Currently, only IRS staffers can be dismissed if they don’t pay their taxes.

“Federal employees have an obvious obligation to pay their federal income taxes,” said Chaffetz. “Because they draw their compensation from the American taxpayers, federal employees owe it to the taxpayers themselves to pay their taxes. If not, they should be fired.”

He doesn’t say how they might pay that debt after losing their jobs. The legislation also would block the federal hiring of applicants who are seriously behind on their taxes.

Citing IRS data, the Chaffetz release said nearly 100,000 federal civilian employees owed $962 million in unpaid federal income taxes in 2008. With retirees and military personnel included, the numbers come to more than 276,000 people owing $3 billion.

And we trust IRS generated statistics on this issue why?

There are several problems with these numbers. First, the reported numbers work out to an average of $9,000 per delinquant account, for FY 2008. This neartly1/2 of the total tax bill for even a high level employee with a mortgage. In case no one notices, the Federal Government withholds income tax and even does so for its own employees.

Have you ever been in a position where the IRS thought you owed even $500 which you have not paid. They hound you to death and with penalties and interest it ends up being $1500 before you know it and it takes a year to make it all finally go away because the IRS made an error.

And for everyone else out there, how much money that the IRS says you owe do you end up actually owing? It turns out to be negative as often as positive once all accounts are settled.

So, we grant the IRS has some credibiity on this claim why?

I have been wanting to rant on this for a while.

There are many interested parties who attempt to influence our federal government and its actions by recruiting Agents of Influence. Among the “agents of influence” are politicians, SES (Senior Executive Service), civil servants, and anyone else capable of providing intel or influencing Federal government decisions. The parties trying to gain influence include foreign powers, interest groups (e.g., environazis), corporations (e.g., Goldman Sachs), unions, various causes, and even religious groups (e.g., scientology...OK, they’re not really a religion but they did try to infiltrate the CIA and FBI).

The normal way to gain control over an Agent of Influence is through money, ideology, or blackmail.

For example, I would bet my last dollar that a few congresscritters have secretly been enriched by the Saudis and other OPECKERS to oppose drilling in the USA in order to protect their cartel’s profits.

In order to root out such Agents of Influence I propose that that under the Palin Administration the IRS shall conduct deep, intrusive audits of all members of Congress, all SES, and all senior civil servants. ALL OF THEM REGARDLESS OF PARTY. A deep audit will uncover suspicious money transfers, windfall profits on real estate or other investments, large gifts such as cars, etc.

Then the Justice Dept. needs to PROSECUTE anyone who has been evading taxes, taking bribes, or aiding outside groups.
The criminal Agents of Influence will run for the exits at the first sign that such a serious crackdown is on the way.

This cleanup is the prelude to a 80-90% reduction in force of all civil servants. We need to screen and vet the remaining workers to retain only the honest, un-bribable few. There are few critical Federal functions that cannot be better done by outside contractors.

Such a drastic reduction in the civil service workforce is one of the primary strategies for fixing the runaway federal deficit.

A RIF would save some money, but the real purpose is to reduce the size of government and get them out of our lives.

For example, the EPA is full of Greens who WANT to reduce economic growth as part of their religion. The only way to eliminate the drag on economic growth is to fire as many as possible.

The federal payroll acts like a huge subsidy for leftists who would be flipping burgers otherwise.

Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.