I Felt A Great Disturbance in The Force

January 14th, 2009 | by Craig |

As if 900,000 bosses cried out in unison and said, “FAIL”

Let’s face facts gang, if any one of Max’s 900,000 bosses had “forgotten” to pay taxes, the IRS would have all their assets, and they would be in prison.

But if it’s someone who’s the next SecTreas?

“I believe that these errors, although serious, do not rise to the level of disqualification,” committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Mont., told reporters.

I wonder if I quit paying taxes for the next 3 years if I can call upon Max to say, “Craig’s errors, though serious, do not rise to the level of prison terms.”

Absurd. Utterly absurd.

  1. 15 Responses to “I Felt A Great Disturbance in The Force”

  2. By Jim - PRS on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    You could try claiming that you were suffering from non-filer syndrome.

  3. By Erica on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    Yay! More Democrats being corrupt pukes, bilking taxpayers, and getting away with it!

  4. By Matt Singer on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    If you paid what you owed with interest, I think Max would say that you don’t deserve to go to prison. Geithner did that.

    The Senator from Louisiana screwed a prostitute. Where’s the outrage, Craig?

  5. By Craig on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    As soon as a Senator from Montana screws a prostitute, I’ll be outraged.

    Last I checked, I wasn’t registered to vote in LA.

    Not that that matters, I guess.

    Are you so blindly partisan these days that this treatment doesn’t bother you at all?

  6. By Senior Blonde on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    A couple of years ago, I skipped a couple of tax deposits. (I was in the hospital, trying to die but failed.) I recognized the “mistake,” sent in the money before anyone even notified me, and still a few months later, I was charged 18% interest on the late payments and fined hundreds of dollars. Oh, and the total that I owed was about $3000. That is what happens to plain old taxpayers when they make an “honest” mistake.

  7. By Matt Singer on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    I’m not blindly partisan. I’m just way more concerned about our economy than I am about whether or not a very smart and capable economist managed to mess up how he filed taxes on international income and paid up in full when it was raised.

    Sure, ask him some questions, but hang him out to dry? I’m not inclined to do that. By all accounts, Geithner is a great pick for the job. That’s what I care about.

    As for your original question, are you so blindly partisan that you ignore that he did pay penalties and interest on the tax screw-up? You claimed you’d get jailtime for this, basically arguing that he gamed the system to cover-up his initial crime. As far as I can tell, that didn’t happen. If it did, that is far more troubling than a tax return screw-up.

  8. By Matt Singer on Jan 15, 2009 | Reply

    I’ve been thinking about this more and the more I think about your logic the more perverse it seems. Just so I understand what your argument actually is, it is that Max Baucus should say that a tax screw-up merits jailtime if you do it and a denial of confirmation if a Treasury Secretary nominee does it?

    I mean, honestly, Craig, what is your argument here? That the penalty for tax errors should actually be jailtime? Or do you think the Treasury Secretary should be an accountant?

  9. By Doug on Jan 16, 2009 | Reply

    1. I’ve yet to see that he was required to pay any penalty. Interest is one thing, but we plebes get the groin kick to go with the Vig.

    2. I’m about the dullest knife in the drawer, but if he would have told me I could claim “camp” as dependent care, or if he would have told me that I didn’t have to pay the 10% penalty on early retirement withdrawal, I’d have poked him with a stick.

    3. If my accountant didn’t keep records as simple as an I-9, he’d be fired.

    4. We want people of character in charge of our hope and change, right?

  10. By auntie lib on Jan 16, 2009 | Reply

    And you can’t “just forget”. The IRS sends little reminders and love letters – pretty damn frequently. The guy ignored his obligations. That is a matter of character. And we’ve been promised the most ethical administration in history!!!!

  11. By Neal on Jan 17, 2009 | Reply

    Its a new age boys and girls. Up is down, right is wrong. There exist a different set of rules for Dems. Vs. Rep., Conservative Vs. Liberal. It is all okay, because they are on the side of good and right.

  12. By Mark T on Jan 31, 2009 | Reply

    For what it’s worth, hardly anyone goes to jail for failure to pay taxes, unless they are flagrant about it, as in tax evasion schemes and all of that. For most of us, it’s a long process where IRS will send letters and threaten, and give you time to clean out your bank accounts before they get there, set up installment agreements, and when all else fails, if you qualify, settle for pennies on the dollar.

    If all of that fails, after ten years, taxes are forgiven. IRS is not the monster people make them out to be. And people in jail aren’t earning money.

    But Leona Helmsley was on to something when she said “only little people pay taxes”. The big guys do tend to get an easier ride.

  13. By Rocky Smith on Feb 8, 2009 | Reply

    We may not send Geithner to jail, but still think he’s unfit to be (and now is) Treas. Sec. If he’s so damn smart, how did he make such glaring mistakes over multiple years?

    I’m glad Daschle didn’t get in though. That guy seems utterly slimy to me. His “errors” look less like a simple mistake.

  14. By Mark T on Feb 17, 2009 | Reply

    There’s an attitude there, and we are just seeing a little bit of it – arrogant and acting with impunity, nothing said until they get caught. What Daschle was doing, besides not paying taxes, was cashing in on his 30 years in the Senate. It all goes on all the time, only occasionally out in the open, when someone has a political ax to grind.

  15. By Steve Mosby on Feb 21, 2009 | Reply

    Yea, Geithner is a great pick all right. The other day he was suppose to outline his plan to deal with the toxic assets on the balance sheet of some of these banks. What plan…he had no plan…just a bunch of BS. This guy is in so far over his head it’s not even funny.

  16. By Glenn Cassel AMH1(AW) USN RET on Mar 29, 2009 | Reply

    In the mid 90’s, Max came to Havre High to do what ever he does at these things. I had two kids at HHS. the oldest told me that Max responded to why he got into politics with, I didn’t have anything else to do.
    Like the Seiben Ranch was something he couldn’t handle?

    I am a Havre Ex-Pat. With no connections to the GN/BN/BNSF. It helps to keep one objective.

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