Every year when I prepare my income tax return, I check it once, twice, three times, and sometimes even four, to make sure I didn’t make an arithmetic mistake or leave something off the form that should have been there. And every year I hold my breath (not literally) until the return comes back and I get my refund, afraid that the IRS will find a mistake. Maybe I am just too cautious, I don’t know. I just know I don’t want to tangle with the IRS over my tax bill. I wish some other people would exercise that kind of caution, especially congressmen and new members of the president’s cabinet.

I was impressed with President Obama’s confession on NBC Nightly News Tuesday night when he said, “I made a mistake, I screwed up.” He was talking about the failure of his vetting process that led him to pick Tim Geithner and Tom Daschle for his Cabinet when both of them had failed to pay back taxes, or report income that would have been taxed. I was feeling good that the president was taking the heat for making the wrong choices, quite a turnabout from former President George Bush’s firm denials that he ever made a mistake. Then Obama said something that didn’t set well with me. He said he didn’t think Daschle intentionally did anything wrong by not reporting all the income and benefits he had received. Read the rest of this entry »