Scalawags

Scalawags

It is up to us, the Middle Class of America, or what few of us there are left, to carry the country through the depression. We are the ones who fear God and the I.R.S. (not necessarily in that order). We pay our taxes because it’s the right thing to do, and also, because we fear having any trouble with the I.R.S.

Obviously, not everyone in the country shares our burden of responsibility and our primal fear of “things such as the I.R.S. that go bump in the night.” Take as an example, three of Mr. Obama’s recent nominees to the high level posts of heading the Treasury Department, heading the Health and Human Services Department, and the Chief White House Performance Officer. These three picks to help lead the country, Timothy Geithner, Tom Daschle, and Nancy Killefer collectively owed approximately $180,000 in taxes.

There is much more at issue here than the money owed although, the average person’s attitude is “I pay my taxes and I expect our leaders to pay theirs.” The bigger issue and what is even more distressing, especially in view of the recent outrages of Wall Street financial types devoid of conscience and scruples gorging themselves on ill gotten bonuses, is these government types betraying the public trust even before they assume their posts by not paying taxes which they clearly owed. Excuses offered are not accepted by Main Street. The public distress has not yet shifted to questioning Mr. Obama as to whether this is a continuation of “business as usual in Washington.” Everyone is desperately hoping Mr. Obama’s creation of a higher ethical standard will succeed, and just as importantly, they are counting on the success of Mr. Obama himself.

Confidence is the key ingredient for the recovery of the country. Confidence must first be forcefully restored in government itself. Confidence in the financial system is next. However, unequivocally, the absolute foundation of confidence is honesty and integrity. To presume to hold key public positions while knowingly violating the law does not bespeak of honesty and integrity and is an insult to those who are to be governed and obey the law as part of the normal course of their own lives. At a minimum, would these chosen people not be embarrassed by their sins? Would they not find it difficult to look people eye to eye in conversations? Shouldn’t they themselves be setting the standard for honesty? More basically, haven’t they learned and aren’t they smart enough to know they will get caught and humiliated? “He is truly wise who gains wisdom from another’s mishap.” (Publilius Syrus Circa 42 B.C.) We do prefer wise leaders, don’t you know.

Obviously, many of these people are so arrogant and egotistic they assume they are above the law. They are a crack in the honesty-integrity foundation that must apotropaically be in place for confidence to be restored in the country itself. They are another sad commentary in a long list of recent sad commentaries of human frailties. We can do better than this. No one person is so critical to the country and the government that honesty and integrity can be compromised.

While presently, the main focus in government is spending to energize the economy, following is a suggestion to provide revenue for the government: The three people mentioned above accounted for nearly $200,000 in unpaid taxes in a very small sample size of high income individuals. An extrapolation of that sample and the dollar amount of taxes owed would yield the equation that if 3 people owed $200,000, 15 people would owe $1,000,000 in a similarly constituted larger sample. Furthermore, while we don’t actually know the total number of people considered for these three posts, certainly the sample size remains relatively very small. It must be concluded that, of the individuals in this sample of people considered for these posts, an extraordinarily high percentage of them owe back taxes. What is not in the equation is an examination of the tax obligation status of other possible nominees in the candidate sample. We don’t really know how many of these other potential nominees also had tax liability issues in addition to the three final nominees. Potentially, the percentage of possible nominees owing back taxes could be much higher.

Therefore, the I.R.S. should audit a much higher percentage of individuals making over $250,000 per year. That would yield millions of dollars in revenue in back taxes to the government.

Obviously, there are many other scalawags who undoubtedly would also appreciate the guiding hand of the I.R.S to help them clear their consciences and demonstrate their patriotism.

Jim Wharton
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