THE DAILY BLADE: Only The Little People Pay Taxes
Were she alive today, Leona Helmsley might have amended her infamous declaration to: “Only the little people and those who don’t work for the federal government pay taxes.” WTOP (103.5 FM- Washington, DC) reports that active and retired federal employees owe $3,042,200,000 in income taxes they failed to pay in 2008:
Based on percentages, the Department of The Treasury, which includes the IRS, has the best compliance rate. …
The IRS is the only federal agency where employees can be fired for not paying their taxes [emphasis, The Stiletto]. The non-compliance rate for IRS employees in 2008 was 0.76 percent - down from 0.89 percent in 2007.
The agency with the most tax scofflaws is the U.S. Postal Service, with 28,913 employees who owe $297,933,756. …
Other notable agencies on the list:
Executive Office of the President (includes the White House): 50 employees owe $812,917;
U.S. Senate: 231 employees owe $2,469,026;
U.S. House of Representatives: 447 employees owe $5,809,631;
U.S. Tax Court: 3 employees owe $39,752;
Active Duty Military: 27,111 employees $102,474,672.
It remains to be seen whether the non-compliance rate at the IRS will continue its downward trend now that the man they answer to, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, has not set a good example when it comes to paying in his own taxes. And isn’t it astonishing how many members of Congress have not paid their fair share of the tax burden, even as they are crafting legislation that will add hidden and overt tax surcharges on millions of Americans?
Meanwhile, in a new nationwide Rasmussen Reports telephone survey, 59 percent of adults say the average government worker earns more annually than the average taxpayer and 74 percent say they have more job security than private sector employees. Interestingly, while 51 percent of adults think government workers are paid too much, 71 percent those whose livelihoods are bankrolled by U.S. taxpayers think they are paid either too little or the right amount.
Too bad Rasmussen did not ask whether the survey participants knew that government workers are five times more likely to belong to a union than private sector employees (36.8 percent v. 7.6 percent) – which explains their high salaries and job security.
We Fight Them Over There So We Don’t Have To Fight Them Over Here?: Part VI
Two American Muslim men from GA were sentenced to prison Monday for conspiring to support terrorist groups by sending homemade videos of Washington landmarks overseas and traveling abroad to try to turn their anti-American rhetoric into action, reports The Associated Press:
In separate trials, the two sought to portray their online discussions about jihad as empty talk, and prosecutors acknowledge they never posed an imminent threat to the U.S. But prosecutors say the two took concrete steps when they sent choppy video clips of landmarks to suspected terrorists and traveled abroad to meet with contacts. …
Federal authorities had been tracking the two men for more than a year before apprehending them. Sadequee, they said, first sought to join the Taliban in December 2001 and then spent the next few years delving deeper into radical online forums and meeting other supporters.
Ehsanul Islam Sadequee, 23, was sentenced to 17 years in prison, and Syed Haris Ahmed was sentenced to 13 years in prison.
Editorial Note: Read previous posts in this ongoing series following domestic terrorism arrests and prosecutions here (second item), here (third item), and here (last item).
Please Sign This E-Petition
Please sign this E-petition to stop the courts martial of Navy SEALs Julio Huertas, Jonathan Keefe and Matthew McCabe, who are on trial for allegations made by terrorist mastermind Ahmed Hashim Abed that he was abused after they captured him, as the al-Qaeda playbook instructs.
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