Those who can do..those who can't legislate

The exposure of Timothy Geithner's, The ONE's pick for Treasury Secretary, failure to pay his taxes didn't come as much of a surprise to me. His kind don't play by the same rules as most of us. This mini-scandal slowed his approval by a Senate Committee about as much as freeway traffic slows passing a cop who already has someone pulled over. Sucks for them but we are making good time!

The silky haired John Edwards got it right when he said we live in two Americas. He just got the designation of them wrong. The divide isn't rich and poor. It is the privileged and the un. There is the America of apple pie eating, flag waiving, hard working, tax paying, beer drinking, law abiding regular folk (the un) and then there is the America of the self-serving, advantage taking, hypocritical, law bending others (the privileged). The latter of course are the elite of America, most of whom are in government positions.

If you or I were to have not paid our taxes for four years the IRS probably wouldn't have been as forgiving as they were with Geithner. I did read he paid all the taxes plus interest. No mention was made of penalties. He must have had Tax Masters working on his behalf.

What I find interesting is that during the entire three and a half hour love fest that was his hearing, Geithner wasn't once asked about the reimbursements he received on those taxes he "should have been more careful" in paying. For you see the IMF, Geithner's employer at the time, reimbursed employees for Self-Employment Taxes paid.

Byron York at the National Review wrote on January 14th:(The Bolds are mine)

Geithner Accepted IMF Reimbursement for Taxes He Didn’t Pay

The IMF did not withhold state and federal income taxes or self-employment taxes — Social Security and Medicare — from its employees’ paychecks. But the IMF took great care to explain to those employees, in detail and frequently, what their tax responsibilities were. First, each employee was given the IMF Employee Tax Manual. Then, employees were given quarterly wage statements for the specific purpose of calculating taxes. Then, they were given year-end wage statements. And then, each IMF employee was required to file what was known as an Annual Tax Allowance Request. Geithner received all those documents.

The tax allowance has turned out to be a key part of the Geithner situation. This is how it worked. IMF employees were expected to pay their taxes out of their own money. But the IMF then gave them an extra allowance, known as a “gross-up,” to cover those tax payments. This was done in the Annual Tax Allowance Request, in which the employee filled out some basic information — marital status, dependent children, etc. — and the IMF then estimated the amount of taxes the employee would owe and gave the employee a corresponding allowance.

At the end of the tax allowance form were the words, “I hereby certify that all the information contained herein is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and that I will pay the taxes for which I have received tax allowance payments from the Fund.” Geithner signed the form. He accepted the allowance payment. He didn’t pay the tax. For several years in a row.

Perhaps it was a four year running innocent mistake but I would like to toss the review flag on the field. Can we get a ruling on this? Probably not, we can't even get a question about it.

Every April most of us spend time doing our taxes, paying our taxes and grumbling about our taxes. Unfortunately the head of steam we work up during this time has bled off by the time the next election comes along in November. Is it any wonder election day and tax day are as far apart from each other on the calendar as possible? We small minded simpletons are expected to file and pay our taxes correctly and, if we can't figure them out ourselves, we are expected to pay more of our hard earned money to have someone figure them on our behalf. If the lines stretching around the H&R Block are any indication, most of us can't figure out the convoluted tax laws any better than the guy who is about to be in charge of the enforcers.

Hell, even those who write the laws seem unable to figure them out. Charlie Rangel, in the best swept under the rug story of 2008, has been under investigation for his own payment "mistakes". Rangel has been on the Ways and Means Committee (the one that writes tax law) for thirty years and is currently its chairman! Rangel claims he didn't know he was receiving income on the property. He supposedly also didn't realize the sweet deal of a mortgage he got too. He wasn't charged interest on after two years. He and Chris Dodd must have the same bankers.

We can rant all we want but those of us in the "other" America will never be able to compete with the privileged. Until we begin to stand up, take notice and call out these atrocities nothing will change. Tomorrow Mr. Geithner will be approved for his cabinet seat and the story of his tax scandal will be place on the back shelf of the filing cabinet. Charlie Rangel will be holding court in the House instead of being held until he is called to court for his financial sins. The media which should be pressing these issues will be busy being the new President's personal press.

Me? I am on my way to buy this year's edition of Turbo Tax. I just hope it works better for me than it did for Mr. Geithner.