Geithner/Daschle: Tax Evasion vs. Tax Resistance

It has been twelve days into the Presidency of Barack Obama, and already two of his appointments have failed to pay large amounts of federal income taxes. The first was Tim Geithner, Obama’s appointment to lead the Treasury Department, who failed to pay $34,000 several years ago. And now it has come to light that Tom Daschle, the selection for the Health and Human Services Department, has failed to pay over $120,000 in back taxes.

So I guess the real question is why does our government officials fail to pay taxes and the act is shrugged off, while we the citizens are coerced and made to fear the very body of government that represents us? Isn’t it hypocritical to appoint someone head of the Treasury Department when they owe such a substantial amount of money to the government? I certainly know that if I owed $120,000-or even $34,000-the government would give me hell for it. But it seems that it’s only an honest mistake if it’s a government official in question….

You would be mistaken, however, if you thought that I support the income tax in any way. I believe that tax resistance against a government that uses our earnings to kill, coerce, torture and maim the innocents of the world is a legitimate form of protest. Men such as Mohandas K. Gandhi, Henry David Thoreau, and the very Founders of our American republic used tax resistance as a weapon against governments that use war and brute force to subjugate others. And the way I see it, our country is falling into the same path of domination and control that has been the classic method of empires throughout the ages. If you don’t believe me, ask the families of the dead what they feel of our system of governance.

What strikes me most about this situation is the utter hypocrisy of our tax system, where the people high on the government food chain are slapped on the wrist, while the ordinary person who may make an honest mistake are raided by the IRS, harassed and imprisoned at whim. Businesses have been destroyed, justice trampled underfoot and lives forever changed by that shadowy branch of government. So my message to President Obama is this: if you genuinely support tax resistance (however unlikely), be forthright about it. But if you maintain that the wealthy should pay more taxes than the working man, you should double check to see if your appointments, which are better off than many Americans, have been truthful about their own taxes. Otherwise, you are made to look like the mascot of your own political party that you have remained so loyal to.