You may have seen the article in your local newspaper, unless of course you’ve been too busy to read the paper because you’ve been rummaging through old receipts and struggling with various tax equations in order to get your federal income taxes filed. Well, the message from Congress on paying your taxes may be “Why bother?”
You see, the IRS just reported that members of Congress and their staffs owe about $10.5 million dollars in unpaid taxes, “one of the highest rates of delinquency in the federal government” and higher than that of the general public.
I guess they can’t say they gave at the office. You’d think that since members of Congress get to spend all the money, they’d be more willing than the average citizen to pay their share. But apparently no.
I’m troubled, but I’m also sympathetic. You know, the tax bite is huge. Federal income taxes alone are monstrous. But add those state and local taxes, sales taxes, property taxes, the tax on this and the tax on that, and the total bill is tough for anybody to pay. How come we gotta pay all those taxes? Oh, a little thing called “unbridled spending” by greedy career politicians in collusion with greedy special interests.
We have met the enemy and it’s the career politicians in Washington. It is a shame that politicians in Congress must be burdened with so much tax debt. But don’t worry about them. The next time they want to spend more money on some program, they’ll just get it from you.
This is Common Sense. I’m Paul Jacob.