Democrats, Patriotism and Taxes Revisited

by Peter Brown The amateur psychiatrist in me, or perhaps the budding diplomat, is tempted to suggest that an internal battle between human nature and political philosophy accounts for the tax problems all too many of President Barack Obama’s top appointees are having. That sounds better than saying the folks involved are hypocrites. It’s hard not to see something of a pattern in the four cases involving Mr. Obama’s top-level appointments who have had to fess up that they — or their spouse, in the case of Labor Secretary-designee Hilda Solis – didn’t pay as much attention as they should to tax laws. Or for that matter, how about the most powerful member of Congress when it comes to writing tax laws admitting he didn’t pay taxes on substantial amounts of income? This is not about whether the nominees should serve in the Obama cabinet. Whether failing to pay taxes — which many Americans would probably love to do if they thought they could get away with it — is a disqualification for ... (link)