More Monday Musings

Given the recent spate of high-level cabinet appointees that seem to have difficulty in properly paying their "fair share" of the national tax burden, I think this would be a prime opportunity to institute some more ethics reform in Washington.

My first proposal is that every member of the House and Senate, the President, and his entire cabinet, undergo yearly audits by the IRS. I don't think it is too much to ask that those responsible for writing, implementing, and enforcing tax law on the rest of us be held to the highest standard, and they should be able to prove that they are, in fact, leading by example in this area. I think, also, that in any year that they fail to meet at least 90% compliance, the rest of the taxpayers be given a full income tax refund for that year.

I think that, if we are to take Timothy Geithner at his word, that his failure to pay taxes on time was an honest mistake, that a serious conversation should be undertaken with him regarding reforming and simplifying the U.S. tax code. After all, if the head of the IRS cannot properly pay his taxes, why are all the rest of us lesser mortals expected to?

I think it is high time we stop honoring elected officials for "service to their country," as if they are making some huge sacrifice. Members of the military serve their country. National Guardsmen serve their country. Senators and Congressmen who receive compensation for their time in office, who often then go on to lucrative lobbying jobs afterwards, who draw cushy retirement packages even when they are ejected in shame, who use their positions to gain more power for themselves, are not serving anybody but themselves. Not since the early days of this country, when serving in the federal government actually was a hardship that was not worth the little money they were paid and the vast distances they had to travel has this been a sacrifice. Not since the days of the Continental Congress have these individuals had to risk anything for this service. People like Tom Daschle are not owed anything for their "service" to this country. If anything, we, the taxpayers, seem to be the ones sacrificing every time we elect these people to office.

Much was made of how hateful Republicans were not so long ago regarding false allegations that we liked to call Democrats unpatriotic. Well, hypocrisy seems to be the coin of the realm for liberals. One of the most recent emerging Hollywood actors-turned political expert, Tom Hanks, has leveled the charge of being "Un-American" at the entire Mormon church (the actual name is the Church of Jesus Christ of Latter-day Saints). Mr. Hanks is a fine actor, and I have enjoyed most of his movies. As of late, he has been behind the HBO series "Big Love" (Hanks is the executive producer), which has as its subject matter a polygamist family that is part of a sect that splintered off of the Mormon church. Recently, in promoting the series, Mr. Hanks made the allegation that members of the Mormon church gave the church money to pass Proposition 8 in California - the widely popular proposition that banned gay marriage, and passed with a majority of the vote. Note that Mormons do not comprise a majority of the population at large, or the voting populace, in the state of California - nevertheless, the church has received the majority of the vitriolic slander by people such as Mr. Hanks. Mr. Hanks is also incorrect in his statement - members of the church did not give money to the church to pass this, rather they were encouraged by the church leadership to do what they could to help it pass. Mr. Hanks then went on to say that, "There are a lot of people who feel that is un-American, and I am one of them." He later, through his publicist, issued an apology. How typical of liberal thought - speaking out and voting your conscience is apparently only American when it advances the agenda of the liberal pseudo-intellectual class of this country. All the rest of us are Un-American. I once thought that, in an occupation that has lately seemed to have lost all sense of decency, Mr. Hanks stood above the Sean Penns and Tim Robbins and had some class. Clearly I was premature in that judgment.