Republican Entitlement: their own Tax Delinquency's are okay, despite being 5 Times more prevalent than IRS employees.

In what should have been a completely embarrassing moment of elitist thinking and flat out hypocrisy by House Republican (including all WI Republican members except Ryan), oddly turned out to be anything but. They're in charge, and they get to work under a different set of rules than the rest of us. It was a high five moment for Democrats, who decided not to sit back and take it anymore. Roll Call:

IRS STAFF WITH TAX PROBLEMS: The House passed a GOP-drafted bill (HR 1206) that would prohibit the Internal Revenue Service from adding staff until it either (a) vouches that none of its 80,000 employees have a “serious” tax-delinquency not being resolved or (b) reports to Congress on why it cannot provide such a certification. Republicans said it was “hypocrisy” for IRS employees to have their own tax problems.

Real Hypocrisy? The Democrats made an important point to ivory tower Republican political elitists:

Democrats said tax delinquency by congressional staffs is five times more prevalent than at the IRS.

So the Democrats made Republicans vote on it. Republicans didn’t back down though, essentially saying they were special, more deserving, entitled, and aren't subject to the same standards than the people they serve:

The House defeated a bid by Democrats to negate HR 1206 (above) whenever serious tax delinquency on congressional staffs exceeds that at the Department of the Treasury, the parent agency of the IRS. The congressional rate is about 5 percent, compared to 1.19 percent at Treasury and 9 percent in the population at large, according to floor debate on this motion.

Voting yes were Mark Pocan, Ron Kind, and Gwen Moore.

Our elitist father figure authoritarian “leaders” voted in their own self interest; Jim Sensenbrenner, Glenn Grothman, Shawn Duffy, and Reid Ribble.

Tax Time Nightmare another gift from corporate America.

Check out the following expose from Ezra Klein about the tax software scheme by Intuit and H&R Block to make lots of money from an unsuspecting publilc. This is something I didn't know anything about.

For most Americans every dollar made, including our current family status, is already known by the IRS. It would be simple for the IRS to send you your tax form already filled out, waiting for your signature. You could also check the box and opt to do it yourself.

But the big financial software companies have successfully lobbied to kill that option. Here's a great video where Klein spills the beans on another corporate ripoff:

If I'm not itemizing deductions (like 70 percent of taxpayers), the IRS has all the information it needs to calculate my taxes, send me a filled-out return, and let me either send it in or do my taxes by hand if I prefer. This isn't a purely hypothetical proposal. Countries like Denmark, Sweden, Estonia, Chile, and Spain already offer "pre-populated returns" to their citizens. 

The United Kingdom, Germany, and Japan have exact enough tax withholding procedures that most people don't have to file income tax returns at all, whether pre-populated or not. California has a voluntary return-free filing program called ReadyReturn for its income taxes.

Obama and Reagan both backed this idea:

The Obama administration supports return-free filing, and Ronald Reagan touted the idea in a 1985 speech:

"We envision a system where more than half of us would not even have to fill out a return. We call it the return-free system, and it would be totally voluntary. If you decided to participate, you would automatically receive your refund or a letter explaining any additional tax you owe. Should you disagree with this figure, you would be free to fill out your taxes using the regular form. We believe most Americans would go from the long form or the short form to no form."

The Republican talking point for decades plays on the myth liberal Democratic Americans like taxes in general, and don't mind paying more. Without this silly caricature, they can't make the argument that freeloading off the work and legacy of generations before them is okay: