The Enemy Of the Good

I've just gotten around to reading this article, after spending the last week putting the finishing touches on my tax return and mailing it! The article bemoans the superstrict rules to which candidates for top positions in the Obama administration are being held, and about how many qualified people have dropped out because of them. To look at the article another way: is anyone besides me disturbed by the admissions of so many of these candidates that they haven't played by the rules in paying and/or filing their income taxes? I don't like the tax laws any more than anyone else does (and I'm a CPA!), but I've found it makes life a lot easier if you just play by the rules. Maybe if some of these rich jerks HAD been paying the amounts they were supposed to, the federal government wouldn't be in quite the lousy financial position it is in today.

Exactly what kind of tax problems are involved? Don't these people have accountants? It would be interesting to categorize the different issues. Are all these people purposely cheating? Or misusing loopholes? Or sloppy? Or poor at record keeping? Or, would everyone in the country have a tax problem if everyone were audited, i.e., is our tax code so convoluted that is is iimpossible to file an honest return?

Exactly what kind of tax problems are involved? Don't these people have accountants? It would be interesting to categorize the different issues. Are all these people purposely cheating? Or misusing loopholes? Or sloppy? Or poor at record keeping? Or, would everyone in the country have a tax problem if everyone were audited, i.e., is our tax code so convoluted that is is iimpossible to file an honest return?

This is the undercovered issue of the times -- that when the ethics screws are tightened, far too many fail to pass the test. The guy who said that anyone from New York would either have a tax or nanny problem -- that's very telling.

Maybe the best thing to do is to put all people earning over $75,000/year through a one-time vetting process. With all the unpaid taxes, we might be able to significantly reduce the deficit!

Funny. How many other presidents had this problem... uh uh.. yeh.. its the rules that are the problem. Enemy of good. well worth a laugh.

Really strange that for Obama, the "best and brightest" are also unethical enough not to be qualified.

i hpe obama sticks with his ethics -that is the only virtue which can save the collapse of a very corrupt society

Washington really needs to hire some poor wise men, as Lincoln was. Elijiah(Obama) should know this. Recirculating the same old scum around Washington, whom, "know how the game is played" will not change anything.

"A superstrict vetting process has driven off...Tom Daschle...after it was disclosed he failed to pay about $140,000 in back taxes.." Thomas and Barry call it a superstrict process when it's discovered that someone who has been in government most of his adult life and therefore should know the law, fails to pay back taxes equal to greater than three times the median income of the American taxpayers. How exactly is that superstrict????

"A superstrict vetting process has driven off...Tom Daschle...after it was disclosed he failed to pay about $140,000 in back taxes.." Thomas and Barry call it a superstrict process when it's discovered that someone who has been in government most of his adult life and therefore should know the law, fails to pay back taxes equal to greater than three times the median income of the American taxpayers. How exactly is that superstrict????

So when is the impeachment process of Barack Obama starting ?

Candidate Obama would have been better off had he not run such a grandiose campaign last year. Too many Obama supporters made Obama look like the second coming. "Nobody" could live up to all that hype. Obama would have been better served had not played the Washington "outsider" so much. It looks like some of may be coming back to bite him in the rear.

"The Enemy Of the Good" whom exactly is suppose to be the good?

Why use a teleprompter? Because that???s what people do when they have important ideals to express and they want to do so in a clear and concise manner. When you don???t have that, you tend to say stupid things like " Mission accomplished " and " Bring it on". Or even make bad jokes about Special Olympics. That???s why we have those funny paper things called books. When you have something important to say, write it down to make sure you say it how you meant to. President Obama is not an " actor " like the ex-President you Republicans love so much, paid to recite what others have written for him. It's not a line in a script to be memorized and regurgitated. It is the peoples business and that requires a presentation that is professional and reflects the importance of the subject matter.

All of the people complaining about President Obama doing too much and should be concentrating only on the economy are now complaining about how he only talked about one thing, the economy. Now it's boring and did not inspire the people. Well, if it's inspiration you need, go to church. I need a President to tell me what he's going to do to fix the problems we have. Not someone to tell me every reason why not to do something and no suggestions on how to correct the issue.
And look at how the market has responded to his proposals. Every standard set by the ??? talking heads??? on the right is indicating progress. Housing is up, consumer purchasing is up, and confidence is growing. And what does the ???loyal opposition??? say in response? ??? I hope the Presidents ideals fail ??? per Rush L., Bobby J. and Fred T. I guess in their minds, the economy is inching forward in spite of the economic stimulus plan not because of it. If we had done as they proposed and???. Wait, they haven???t purposed anything. So I guess their new ideal is ???Nothing new but no to everything???.

And to those who consider the budget too large and wasteful, I say this. President Obama is investing in the American people with this budget. It says that if I, the government, give you better schools and provide you with access to better resources such as high speed Internet, affordable college loans and health care, you will in turn be able to better compete in a global economy. If I, the government, invest in rebuilding the infrastructure this country and not some foreign nation that we are at war with, that you the citizens will be able to do more with your business for less, faster and more reliably. And that by investing in new sources of energy now, we can create a worldwide demand for American products and not continue to import ourselves to the point that we have to lie about why we are fighting wars and losing American soldiers. And that if I, the government, adjust the tax code to better represent the majority of the population, that you the people will use the entrepreneurial sprit that has made this country the greatest nation ever on the face of the

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