Voice of the White House
October 18, 2009

Washington, D.C.: “Our blessed IRS is reporting a tax gap of $345 billion that reflects what is owed and what has been paid. Their new, but secret, plan? To go after sole proprietors, that is, persons who own unincorporated businesses. Unlike wage and some investment income, sole proprietors’ income is not subject to withholding and only a portion is subject to information reporting to IRS by third parties. The IRS has forced several Swiss banks to disgorge the names of U.S. “secret” bank account holders and are going after them. They plan to rake in several billion, but what about the $65 billion that Bernie Madoff hid in Israeli banks? Why not go after them? That find would be helpful to the IRS but oddly enough, we never hear about that, do we? Why not? Don’t ask stupid questions. While the overall marketplace is holding its own and rising a little, what is being studiously ignored is the large and growing number of unemployed, and unemployable citizens. Offshoring is part of the problem but times are changing and the United States, while still a great power, is no longer a major manufacturing country and the mass of unemployed is not going away. Taking care of friends in the banking community is one thing but if the unemployment situation is not corrected, this country is in for serious future problems. Why not tax the hell out of offshored companies? It might bring them back here where the jobs belong, not in Manila or Mumbai. "America First" used to be a popular slogan so why not resurrect it again? And tax the crap out of phony religious scams as well.”