The American Spectator

Paul Milenkovic| 5.15.09 @ 11:08AM

Threading a needle through a loophole? The payroll tax matter was one of smashing an M1-A1 tank through a building.

Much as there has been populist and right-wing snark against Mr. Daschle getting a limo and not counting that as income, the average person out there, who admittedly doesn't get a free limo, can at least sympathize with getting some non-monetary freebie. Tell me that no one here has not put Frequent Flier miles to personal use (my reading of the tax rules is that there is an exemption for Frequent Flier miles being taxable income, and that is probably the result of airline lobbying).

Secretary Sibelius has also been the target of criticism for whatever tax problem she had. But her problem involved deductability of mortgage interest when her house was in some kind of post-sale limbo, and this kind of gray-area tax problem can happen to any of us.

But as to Mr. Geithner, there was not gray-area or "I forgot to enter it" or "TurboTax made me do it" excuse that works here. It has been reported that the HR people where he worked took people aside and told them they had to pay the tax. And we are not talking about the Income Tax here. We are talking the Payroll Tax, you know, that regressive tax on working stiffs who would not otherwise have any withholding from their meagre paychecks, that tax that funds Senior Citizens through the Third Rail of American Politics: Social Security and Medicare.

I mean here is the head of the Treasury which is in charge of the IRS. Maybe this is a "it took Nixon to go to China" matter. Perhaps Geithner is the only person with the moxie for the financial crisis, and it took a left-liberal President to put him in charge as a right-conservative President would never be allowed to to this.

Tim| 5.15.09 @ 2:26PM

Dr Ray Stantz: Personally, I liked the university. They gave us money and facilities, we didn't have to produce anything! You've never been out of college! You don't know what it's like out there! I've *worked* in the private sector. They expect *results*.

D. Smith| 5.15.09 @ 11:36PM

Interesting, insightful dissection of Tiny Tim, omitting one of his more creative interpretations of IRS filing of taxes. Did TurboTax tell him it was OK to call posh summer camp tuition for his kid "child care"?

In my opinion, this kind of penny-ante skirting of paying one's taxes requires a criminal mind with the sensitivity of a safe-cracker. A perfect fit for the Obama Administration.

Every time I hear of Geithner's avoidance of four years of IMF taxes, I think anyone who calls summer camp "child care" and gets away with it can get away with anything with the asleep-at-the-wheel IRS. How about private school tuition, is that child care, too?

Just wait until we get Souter's replacement. We will have plenty to howl about, then. A Supreme Court Justice chosen based on empathy, compassion and having "been there". Describes Oprah, doesn't it? You don't have to be a lawyer to be a Supe.

elHombre| 5.16.09 @ 12:21PM

Cheaters and criminals. The Chicago Way. The Obama Way.

2Guns, AZ| 5.16.09 @ 7:00PM

'nuff to make you sick, ain't it. And to think the Demo's called Bush II a culture of corruption.

89543guns, wonderland| 5.17.09 @ 12:14AM

Wow, just think! Try it.

Netizen19380| 5.29.09 @ 6:09PM

An Open Letter to American Government and Business:

Okay, that’s it; why does the United States continue to deal with China?

Our nation has been subtly at war with China. Communist China has already breached the borders of Capitalist America, in many ways. And their insidious “attacks” have been deadly. America needn’t even engage in a military war with China, China has already successfully attacked American families in their very homes. China has assaulted us through the avenues of our own consumerism:

- China has killed our pets, with inferior tainted petfood.
- China has killed our elderly and sick, with inferior tainted drugs.
- China has sickened our children, with inferior lead and toxin laden toys.
- China has destroyed our newly-constructed homes values, with inferior tainted drywall.
- China has destroyed our job base, through outsourced manufacturing jobs.
- China mocks fair trade, by perennially running trade imbalances with the U.S.
- China damages our digital data, through state sponsored cyber attacks and censorsoring our companies.
- China has stolen our personal identities, through online identity theft.
- China steals our stories, by wantonly ignoring copyright laws.
- China continues to flagrantly harm the global environment; by poor pollution controls, by on-lining coal-burning power plants one-a-week and by dumping cheap plastic goods the world over.
- China ruins economies the world over, by keeping their own currency’s value artificially low.
- China despises the American Dollar, China wants to no longer base the International Monetary Fund currency on the U.S. Dollar.
- ...and ultimately China could very easily behead our economy, when they call in the U.S. debts which they hold.

Capitalist America has undermined itself in the short-run by “selling out” to Communist China, at the long-term expense of having a robust American economy. China is no friend the the United States. Ultimately, if America wants to reverse it’s decline during this 21st century, American government and business leaders must help our nation by limiting and eliminating many imbalanced policies and dealings with China. No excuses, no gray areas. Period.

- A Concerned American

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