41 Obama White House aides owe the IRS $831,000 in back taxes -- and they're not alone

LA Times ^ | 9/10/2010 | Andrew Malcom

[Qbert]

Over the years a lot of suspicion has built up across the country about Washington and its population of opportunistic transients coming to see themselves as a special kind of person, somehow above average working Americans who don't work down in that former swamp.

Well, finally, an end to all those undocumented doubts. Thanks to some diligent digging by the Washington Post, those suspicions can at last be put to rest.

They're correct. Accurate. Dead-on. Laser-guided. On target. Bingo-bango. As clear as it's always seemed to those Americans who don't feel special entitlements and do meet their government obligations.

We now know that federal employees across the nation owe fully $1 billion in back taxes to the Internal Revenue Service.

As in, 1,000 times one million dollars. All this political jabber about giving middle-class ...

... Americans a tax cut. Thousands of feds have been giving themselves one all along -- unofficially. And these tax scofflaws include more than three dozen folks who work for the president with that newly decorated Oval Office.

The Post's T.W. Farnum did some research and found that out of the total sum, just 638 workers on Capitol Hill owe the IRS $9.3 million in back taxes. As in, overdue. The IRS gets stiffed by the legislative body that controls its budget. How Washington works.

[Snip]

Privacy laws prevent release of individual tax delinquents' names. But we do know that as of the end of 2009, 41 people inside Obama's very own White House owe the government they're allegedly running a total of $831,055 in back taxes. That would cover a lot of special chocolate desserts in the White House Mess.

[cranked]

You forgot who heads the IRS — A tax cheat and evader himself, Timmy IdiotGeithner. =.=

[penelopesire]

Sounds like a winner to me! I’ll do the same here.

[highlander_UW]

Republicans should run an ad that lists all of the democrats in the Obama admin who are tax cheats in every part of the nation. America just isn't aware of how much corruption the democrats have been committing.

[lonevoice]

In the House of Representatives, 421 people owe a total $6,524,892. In the Senate, 217 owe $2,774,836. In the IRS’ parent department, Treasury, 1,204 owe $7,670,814. At the Labor Department, where Secretary Hilda Solis’ husband had some back-tax problems before her confirmation, 463 owe $7,481,463. Eighty-one workers for the Federal Reserve System’s board of governors owe $1,076,733.

Over at the Justice Department, which is so busy enforcing other laws and suing Arizona, 1,971 employees still owe $14,350,152 in overdue taxes.

IMO, this is a national security issue. Part of a routine background check for those departments should include their tax payer compliance. Certainly it shouldn't be acceptable for anyone with any sort of security clearance to have unpaid taxes, whether federal, state or local.

Alternatively, they can scrap the tax code and give the rest of us peons tax amnesty too until they get the flat tax in place.

[upsdriver]

I have a solution. Cut government salaries to minimum wage then they won’t owe any taxes. Problem solved.

[Tzimisce]

Pay your taxes (which we’ll be raising).

Someone has too. :D:D:D:D

[Qbert]

“I have a solution. Cut government salaries to minimum wage then they won’t owe any taxes. Problem solved.”

Heh.

How about this one?: slash all wasteful, bloated government agencies.

[upsdriver]

:-)

I believe my plan would do just that. If government employees were paid what they are worth, they would seek employment in the private sector. Of course, that would require a renewed work ethic because the private sector demands results.

[Marty62]

A poster after my heart. END the EPA,EDU, INTERIOR and other nanny state agencies. NOW. Especially the ones that don’t even enforce the TAX requirements everyone else lives by. OUT-FRIGGING-RAGOUS!

[azishot]

I can very easily do without her thinking about me in any way, shape or form. If I elaborate any more I’ll have the secret service knocking on my door.

[Joann37]

From the L.A. Times via the Washington Post? I can’t believe it - they really have lost their adoration of “the one”.

[Bobby_Taxpayer]

Can't say it doesn't surprise me. I wouldn't doubt that there is even a secret Executive Order directing the IRS to wave tax collections for the elite Zero Empire.

[naturalborn]

The New $20 Bill, Series 2009: "

[meyer]

Democrat motto:

“No tax for you, no tax for me.
We’ll tax that productive conservative behind the tree.”

[Cementjungle]

This is crazy. The highest paying WH job pays in the mid 100's, I believe

I'm suspecting that this may have changed in the current administration. Probably something on page 1,873 of the healthcare bill which no one has bothered to read yet.

[libertarian27]

I love that!
Hey, I own a pen.....

[CPT Clay]

Fire then and ban them from ever working for Govenment again. They do not deserve salarys and especially those fantastic medical and retirement benefits.

[Chode]

do I really have to say it???

[Qbert]

The full list of delinquencies by agency department available here:

http://yidwithlid.blogspot.com/2010/09/scofflaws-irs-reports-federal-employees.html

[Pride in the USA]

Since we The People pay their salaries through our own taxes, doesn't that make us their employer? If so, I say we start by garnishing their wages.