Reality strikes...

I have formed an impression based on the recent news that the new Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, and former Senator Thomas Daschle both failed to pay income taxes owed. I have no factual data to prove that either of these men intentionally failed to pay taxes, and I am not going to point fingers and cast aspersions. But the impression I do have is that too many facts are not coming to light during the 'vetting' process of potential candidates until late in the process, and I'm wondering why. In the case of the cabinet nominees, if indeed they filed in good faith, thinking they were paying what they owed on their taxes, then I have to ask: is it that they are not taking the time to fill out the forms correctly? Don't they have a tax person to advise them? Or is it that our tax system is soooooooo very complex and controverted that no one can get it right? I would like to assume that the latter explanation is correct... even if either of these gentlemen purposely cheated on their income taxes, I still think it is past time for this country to scrap the tax code and come up with a simple, yet fair, method of calculating what we owe to Uncle Sam. If even the legislators get this wrong, not to mention the person who will head up the IRS, then we have a serious problem, and it should beome a top priority for this administration to solve this problem!