The Obama administration finally stumbled upon some change. Unfortunately for America, some top aides in the White House decided to pocket those pennies, which should have been sent to Uncle Sam.
Three dozen aides working under US President Barack Obama — the same president who insisted on tougher taxes for the economic elite during Tuesday’s State of the Union — are guilty of forgetting to give the government their due share in taxes. Thirty-six members of the staff are delinquent with their federal taxes, Investor’s Business Daily reports. In all, the sum totals to a whopping $833,970.
The Daily Caller adds in their own report that the 457 aides working under President Obama made a total of $37 million in 2011. Around one-third of those staffers have salaries that exceed $100,000, and 21 aides take home $172,000 each year.
Only two days before the report was released, President Obama told the world during his annual State of the Union address, “We don't begrudge financial success in this country. We admire it.” The president added that “When Americans talk about folks like me paying my fair share of taxes, it's not because they envy the rich. It's because they understand that when I get a tax break I don't need and the country can't afford, it either adds to the deficit or somebody else has to make up the difference, like a senior on a fixed income, or a student trying to get through school, or a family trying to make ends meet.”
“If you make under $250,000 a year like 98 percent of American families,” added Obama, “your taxes shouldn't go up. You're the ones struggling with rising costs and stagnant wages.” So struggling, in fact, that Obama’s own aides haven’t even paid their fair share.
The president went on to say, “we need to change our tax code so that people like me, and an awful lot of members of Congress, pay our fair share of taxes.”
“It’s ironic,” Americans for Tax Reform’s Ryan Ellis tells The Daily Caller. “The same week that President Obama says that people who paid their full obligation should pay more, it’s ironic that people who work for President Obama haven’t even paid their own taxes.”
Then again, the president also said the state of the Union is strong, and that is open for argument as well.
Of course, the White House isn’t the only place in Washington you’ll find deadbeats. Internal Revenue Service records suggest that, in all, active and retired federal employees and military personnel owe a total of $3,420,168,684 in unpaid taxes for 2010 alone. Within the ranks of the US Postal Service, 25,640 employees are delinquent to the tune of $270 million.
Now it makes sense why stamps keep getting costlier.
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