Double Standard

If you ever had any doubts about the popular claim that the US is not a democracy - rather more like an aristocracy - you have absolute proof this week. Two of Barack Obama's nominees for high-level administration positions have been caught cheating on their income taxes, and a third has withdrawn her name from consideration because she failed to pay employment taxes on household help.

The two tax cheats, Timothy Gethner, who has already been installed as Treasury Secretary, and Tom Daschle, who has been nominated for Secretary of Health and Human Services, did not just fudge a little bit on their tax returns. Geithner owed almost $50,000 and Daschle owed over $125,000! And both men apparently knew about their overdue tax obligations for many years!

Now what do you suppose would happen to you or me if we were caught doing the same thing? Our assets would be frozen, our wages would be attached, and there would be a good chance that we would end up in jail.

These two men, however, are not only not going to jail, they are being given a slap on the hand as their punishment, then being rewarded with appointments to help govern our country in high-paying positions! Apparently, if you are a member of the aristocracy, legal transgressions are acknowledged with a wink and rewarded with a promise of highly paid employment in a position of power and authority.

Obama and our sick congress just don't get it!

There has never been a better time for a taxpayer revolution, and they are practically inviting it! In light of the double standard, are you motivated to pay your taxes in full and on time? Or are you so infuriated that you are going to try to cheat any and every way you can on your own income taxes?

If the government becomes a law breaker, it breeds contempt for law; it invites every man to become a law unto himself; it invites anarchy. - Supreme Court Justice Louis Brandeis