Re: Another Obama Nominee

you were just about to titillate my inner jonathan swift. too bad…

KT – you’re kidding right?
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May 21, 2008
Capitol Hill Resident Finds Computer Glitch in Tax Office
It’s almost as if the District’s Office of Tax and Revenue has been looking for more ways to come across as a bunch of buffoons. Today the Examiner reports on how one persistent Capitol Hill resident, Noah Meyerson, was responsible for forcing the office to fix an error they had not even detected which allowed roughly 300 homeowners to skip out on an entire property tax payment last year.

The tax office is naturally downplaying the mistake, arguing the error only accounted for less than one percent of the city’s tax revenues. But given the year the Office of Tax and Revenue has had, small mistakes like these really do add up to a larger picture of total incompetence.

the problem with your proposal is that you’re talking about different jurisdictional tax liabilities, as well as different types of liabilities (for example, workman’s comp is private insurance, unemployment is public insurance).
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its not a bad idea, though — put probably best accomplished by the private sector.

Not a bad idea, although I would argue that taxes should just be simpler overall. Unfortunately, most of the tax simplification movements have been led or hijacked by flat-tax zealots who insist that I be taxed at the same rate as Bill Gates before I am allowed to have a simple and easy system of calculating taxes.
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Incidentally, the best tax system that I have ever heard of is the Automated Payment Tax that would tax every transaction at an extremely low rate.

Wouldn’t that be like Turbo Tax?

Dee,
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I don’t think she is kidding. For those Americans that have complicating tax factors, filing your taxes is difficult. A person of average intelligence shouldn’t need to hire two tax lawyers and CPA just to be safe.
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Our tax code is desperately in need of simplification. People don’t willing make errors on their taxes. Everybody has heard of the old adage probably told to them by their grandpa, “Boy, you ain’t got to do but two things in life, and that’s die and pay taxes.”

KT –
Helluva suggestion. I can buy a computer or a big flat-screen (or a Rolex, for that matter) with a few clicks, and it works. I’d hope a tech-savvy (or at least -conversant) administration could at least bring us into the late 20th century.
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Two caveats – don’t give Diebold any part of the contract, and don’t hire any of the cellphone companies to answer the helplines.

andy:

No, it would be something where you tell the government what you pay your employee (and where you live, since some of these taxes are state taxes) and they figure out what you owe EVERYONE and collect it on the spot, either through your credit card or paypal. maryland does something like that for my unemployment filing, and it has been a godsend. so why couldn’t there just be one central site?
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i also discovered, completely by accident, that there’s a program that i can use to automatically fill out w-2s. but oddly enough, it’s not on the irs website, but the social security one. and you have to constantly change your password.
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my kids can tell you how much cussing they hear in our home office as i try to negotiate all these things.

Okay. I give up. Next we are going to hear that Jay Carney has to resign because he forgot to pay back taxes on the gardner. KT-You need to double check Klein, Amy, Michael and JNS because apparently no one inside the beltway knows how to pay taxes.

Surely, technology exists to make this possible.

KT:
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As a technologist (somebody who designs, builds and implements these systems –sometimes excruciatingly complex– for a living), I can tell you:
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Yes. Absolutely.

KT – I can agree to one central site. I don’t think Congress or local government is gonna make it happen. It just should be “mistake-proofed, so you can’t get off the screen until you’ve completed it properly. It just seems like a bolt on for one of these private sector companies like Intuit. Or like the bill pay through your bank, where the bank could deduct the appropriate taxes like a mortgage escrow account.

@bryanfromhouston — I was being snarky about DC it is notoriously inept when it comes to things like this, and the kidding part was about trusting a DC tax office to tell you what you owe and just take it.
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I am still being billed for a parking ticket that I’ve already proved I paid on a number of occasions. Hence the snippet from the DC examiner.
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Oh and pluk — I’m sure you can find several articles lambasting DC government for contracting out the parking meter and traffic camera functions that have done some questionable things so I don’t know if the private sector is always the answer either — Halliburton, KBR

As a small (translated as minute) business critter, please allow me to say that is one he!! of an idea, Ms. Tumulty. Seconded.

And what bryanfromhouston said. Also.

my kids can tell you how much cussing they hear in our home office as i try to negotiate all these things.
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well, there is an easy solution.
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Make Swamphusband do it.

I probably way overpay my taxes simply because I’m trying to make sure I avoid the kinds of things that, apparently, get you a job with the Obama Administration. Buy, do I feel like a sucker!

my other idea is that they figure out a way to make one password or pin number that would work for everything. i may run for president on that one.

KT – mark of the Beast?

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_killefer

….

I SURE AS HELL HOPE & CHANGE THAT SKIPPY O’BONGER DOES A BETTER JOB VETTING OUR ENEMIES IN GITMO THAN HE DOES HIS LOBBYIST FRIENDS IN D.C.

What a group, and what an ugly, above-it-all non-start to a lackluster POTUS admin.

KT,
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Yep. The system is a mess and hardly anyone abides by it. It’s like when the maximum speed limit on interstate highways was 55 mph. Everyone knew the law, but hardly anyone followed it. (And those who did were honked at for slowing traffic.)
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Prohibition is another good example. Massive failure.
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Maybe someday all of this will be worked out. Your idea is excellent. Too bad you’re not connected enough to be nominated for a worthwhile post.

my other idea is that they figure out a way to make one password or pin number that would work for everything. i may run for president on that one.
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while that’s probably a bad idea (one password for everything means that if someone gets your one password, they’ve got access to everything), I wouldn’t mind seeing one rule for passwords (and IDs).

YO, OBAMA:

NICE VETTING, AGAIN.

NOT.

“Obama took no questions Tuesday after announcing his choice of Sen. Judd Gregg to be commerce secretary. He left the White House lectern ignoring a shouted question about why so many of his nominees have tax problems.”

What a freakin DWEEB.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/ap/20090203/ap_on_go_pr_wh/obama_killefer

Oh well.

HILLARY HAPPENS.

I feel like there must be more to the Killefer withdrawal. Any rumors?

Oh and pluk — I’m sure you can find several articles lambasting DC government for contracting out the parking meter and traffic camera functions that have done some questionable things so I don’t know if the private sector is always the answer either
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dee, there is a difference between government outsourcing essential services (bad idea), and meeting a demand for a service that its not necessary for the government to provide (setting up one website on which someone can take care of the various federal and state tax and private and public insurance liabilities for the convenience of those well off enough to be able to afford to hire personal employees.)
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KT – I’ve called the IRS two different days with the same question and gotten two different answers (I thought the first answer was wrong, and at least the second person agreed with me). The advantage of your government driven system is presumably there would be one set of understandings of the rules to apply to all.

The only way to get a more effective system is to force policymakers to abide by the existing one. John Edwards’ had a great proposal to strip health insurance from Congress if they failed to pass a comprehensive plan. Of course, the politicians and the Villagers were up in arms at being “extorted” to pass a bill upon pain of being thrust onto the open market for health insurance (i.e. what McCain wanted to do to all Americans).

pourme: – I’m curious why you think there needs to be more. It’s beginning to look like an epidemic of small tax problems with these nominees, and there probably really is a limit to how many of them can remain on the team.
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Does anybody know/remember if the Bush appointees had these kinds of problems too, or if we had access to the same level of information? Considering that Daschle caught and reported this problem it may truly be a sign of his honesty. Would anyone have caught it if he hadn’t explored the problem himself?

“ohn Edwards’ had a great proposal to strip”

… and it was accepted.

pmc: No proposal survives wholly intact.
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I was going to say that Edwards agreed to split the baby, but that might be too much.

sqrl: the real problem with the edwards proposal was that it was unconstitutional.

sqrl: the real problem with the edwards proposal was that it was unconstitutional.
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Ha! Who told you that one? Unconstitutional. Please. That’s quite the clever argument.

KT –

Picky, picky, picky. Or does that matter again?

“for those of us who have household employees”…spoken with that sense of noblesse oblige so characteristic of the beltway media’s salaried gentry. Very endearing indeed.

While I concur with your proposal for online simplification, it sounds to me like you’re creating excuses for Democratic fat-cat lobbyists whose financial wherewithal and access to CPA’s and tax lawyers should easily preclude such shenanigans.

It is incumbent upon all of us to know and understand our obligations under the tax code even if we don’t have access to the professional services that multi-millionaire lobbyists do.

It’s almost as if you actually believe these tax evasions weren’t intentional?!?

sqrl:

http://swampland.blogs.time.com/2007/11/13/edwards_new_ad/

27th amendment (the most recent one):
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No law, varying the compensation for the services of the Senators and Representatives, shall take effect, until an election of Representatives shall have intervened.
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Also, some separation of powers issues.

bubarini:
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i think a lot of working moms, especially ones with irregular hours, employ babysitters. it beats leaving the kids home with a bowl of catfood.

Per NBC: Daschle’s pulling out.

KT, sounds like a great idea. Practical, nonpartisan, efficient and technologically informed. Maybe we need more Harvard MBA’s in …. Oh, right.

KT – “it beats leaving the kids home with a bowl of catfood.”
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I dunno. That always works for me.

KT: First, it is entirely unclear whether the 27th Amendment applies to benefits, as opposed to salary.
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Second, even if it were the case, Edwards’ own campaign admitted that it would be the bully pulpit that Edwards would use (presumably to pass legislation to that effect), rather than, say, issuing an executive order to strip the benefits.
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Third, whether or not the language that Edwards used on the stump could be construed to implicate Constitutional issues, is rather tangential to the point that such a threat could, quite easily, be implemented without any Constitutional issue. There is nothing remotely problematic with the basic principle of either taking away Congress’ health care benefit or giving everyone access to the same health insurance options.
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Fourth, and my understanding is that this is, admittedly, not how most Congresspersons receive the bulk of their medical care, but members of the House and Senate may, for a fee, receive special access to military physicians at the Capitol and/or Walter Reed Army Hospital or Bethesda Naval Hospital. My best guess is that a President could remove access to these facilities immediately.

sqrl: i think it’s pretty clear that benefits are part of “compensation.” also, the president doesn’t set congress’ compensation. that is done by law, passed by congress and signed by the president. so he doesn’t have the power to take it away. it was a completely hollow proposal on the part of edwards, which his campaign prety much acknowledged when i pressed them on it. but it made a good sound bite.
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And, no, a President could not cut off their access to Walter Reed. and it wouldn’t make much difference if he could. most of them get their benefits through the same insurance plan as govt employees anyway.
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its not a bad idea, though — put probably best accomplished by the private sector.
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Paychex, here in NY does this kind of thing.

OBAMA,
OBAMA,
MEANS
TAX CHEATS O-RAMA!

GOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOOO TEAM CLIXON II

@plukasiak — “dee, there is a difference between government outsourcing essential services (bad idea), and meeting a demand for a service that its not necessary for the government to provide”
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passports

“Mommy, why do so many of Pwezident Skippy O’Bonger’s peeps cheat on their taxes that help support our brave troops freeing the Stalinist slaves in Iraq and Afghanistan?”
… … …
Timmy, nobody really knows for sure why they cheat so much. It could be a sense of liberal entitlement, it could be their way of getting even for being such moral cowards, it could be a sign of deep shame for their failure to fully support President Bush in the war on terror, it could be a way to get back at the Marines for corralling their constituents in Gitmo, or it could just be that they don’t do math.

Certainly, there’s somebody missing at the Office Of The Vetting Of The President Select. Likely union, on liquid lunch break since the election.

In any event, expect more of the same: Dumb choices, poor decisions, haphazard planning, spastic responses, and bogus outrage at the GOP for noticing the myriad flaws of the hope & change messiah.
… … …
YES WE CATCHYA.

Kerry via TPM:
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I believe that when the smoke clears and the frenzy has ended, no one will believe that this unwitting mistake should have erased thirty years of selfless public service and remarkable legislative skill and expertise on health care.
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There are times when I think Glenn is hyperbolic. But filth is really the only word that applies here. “selfless public service.” It’s foul.

Oh, and on the treatment of Bush appointees. Start with Cheney and Haliburton, and proceed into the muck from there.

KT: Honestly, you’re being willfully obtuse. Who cares if a vague and, yes, pandering statement on the campaign trail can be implemented exactly as stated? I mean, kudos to you for tenaciously extracting the wholly trivial acknowledgment that Congress is required to pass legislation.
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As I recall, the original point was that Congress (and apparently much of the media) needs to be subjected to the same laws and law enforcement as most American before they will be able to relate. That PRINCIPLE is what motivated Edwards to make the statement. He was entirely correct to do so. And a President who so desired could govern with that principle in mind, using the Constitutional tools that are available. Academic debates over which tools, on the margins, are Constitutional strikes me as rather silly and a tremendous time water.
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That said, without knowing the specific statutory authority that permits Congress special access to military doctors and facilities, I would be quite shocked if the legislation was so specific that it gave the President no wiggle room to claw those benefits back. If not expressly and entirely, then effectively by refusing to treat Congressmembers as VIPs in nice rooms and subjecting them to the same waiting lists as military personnel.

“Honestly, you’re being willfully obtuse.”
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This is fundamental to being a member of the establishment press. Example:
Hey Karen! Why so much attention paid to tax issues and zero stories about the NSA wiretapping journalists?
Karen Tumulty: I’m not a media critic…what’s an NSA?(dramatization)
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It’s too bad Daschle didn’t do something more acceptable to the press…like starting illegal wars, torturing, using the DOJ for political hit jobs, wiretapping journalists, etc., etc.

Well Daschle has withdrawn. Will Obama learn a lesson from this crap?

I’d like to thank all the folks who haven’t commented on Mikey’s posts today. Keep this up, and he might start getting a clue . . . nah, forget it, won’t happen.
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He still has hulagate.

“Will Obama learn a lesson from this crap?”
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Hopefully, he’ll realize that there’s a populist revolution taking hold. Don’t be the last one off the “non-partisan” “centrist” ship.

Get a payroll service to do all this for you and file all the necessary tax paperwork. It would cost you $30-$50/month. Not worth it for everybody, but for those Cabinet-secretaries in waiting …

Bob gets it.

Bob does get it and I like the way he frames it. But I just can’t understand why those in such visible public and quasi-public careers, with abundant discretionary income, irrespective of political persuasion, and who absolutely should know better, continue to make such silly penny-wise, pound-foolish choices. As much as I have admired Daschle, it is just and fitting karma.
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If the President is serious about rewriting the beltway script then he needs to get tough and send the message loud and clear with a few sacrificial lambs.
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from the cheap seats…

Love KT’s riff on Swift–could it be more ironic!?

Let’s see, the Secretary of the Treasury “can’t do his taxes” and he gets the job anyway, despite having bathed in the Wall Street slime Obama claims he wants to clean up. Then he assesses two more tax dodgers who don’t even make muster. Judgment we can believe in?

=== off topic!
” .. I’ve had the same babysitter for 12 years. ..”
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? Is that a good career move for the babysitter ?
? Is the babysitter American ?
? ! ! Brings to mind the good old days when – if called upon to do so – the babysitter would suckle the master’s kid at the expense of her own … ? ! !
Would this babysitter be around still if the pay was half decent?

ck: my babysitter is a naturalized american citizen, and a simply incredible person. yes, having the same babysitter for this long is unusual, and that is evidence that all parties are happy with the arrangement. would she still be around if the pay WASN’T decent? as for her child, that is part of the arrangement. she now attends the same school as my children, and is over at our house every day, which has been great for my kids and for my babysitter.

[...] This sounds like a pretty good idea to me. [...]