At least the excuses keep getting more entertaining… Read on!
The New York Times has reported that another Obama nominee, Capricia Penavic Marshall, has tax issues. And yes, folks, this one is a doozy.
Capricia Penavic Marshall, together with her husband (who happens to be a cardiologist, stay with me on that one), failed to file their 2005 and 2006 federal income tax returns. Marshall is the Obama nominee for chief of protocol for the State Department (I’m not sure, but isn’t that the position that Goldie Hawn filled in the movie, Protocol? If so, Hawn may still be available. Just saying.)
Marshall isn’t claiming some run of the mill excuse. She has a good one: it’s the fault of the Post Office and, of course, her husband. You see, first, her accountant gave them to her husband and he forgot to mail them. And when he finally did get it together, they somehow didn’t get where they needed to be (insert awkward throat clearing here). Marshall claims that an agent “advised us that there were a large number of tax returns misplaced by the D.C. post office for the 2006 tax year.”
And of course, the problem was miraculously resolved in November 2008, a couple of years after the due date. You know, once Obama was in office – not that I’m implying that Marshall somehow believed that she had to get things right all of the sudden… According to Marshall, the IRS generously advised that in the fall of last year that the Service had not received their returns.
Oh those silly Marshalls. They can’t seem to get it together. But when it comes to where the salad fork goes, apparently, we can count on her.
As it turns out, the Marshalls were actually better off filing those returns since the couple was entitled to more than $37,000 in tax refunds for the two years. But that’s not the point. It doesn’t absolve you of the requirement to file.
Yet, a spokesperson for Secretary of State Hillary Clinton seemed to think that made it okay. She said: In the end, only two American taxpayers were adversely impacted by this inadvertent lapse.
Ummm… no.
It affects a lot of American taxpayers. We count on the agents of our government to do the right thing. And not just when it’s convenient. All of the time.
And just to clear up any confusion, the general rule is that a couple who is married filing jointly when both are under the age of 65 must file a return if their gross income is at least $17,900 (that’s the number for the 2008 tax year). In this case, I’m guessing, though I haven’t seen the returns, that much of the refund is due to a combination of withholding and significant credits and deductions, the extent of which would not be known until the return is actually prepared. And clearly, they had the foresight to get an accountant to prepare the return. They just didn’t mail it on time or notice that their $37,000 refund never came.
It doesn’t take a brain heart surgeon to determine that doesn’t look all that great on paper.
I won’t be so hypocritical as to say that I’ve never made a mistake, never missed a filing deadline… I have. See, it’s out there. I don’t claim to be perfect.
But this is the thing. During the Democratic primary, then Senator Clinton knocked Obama as “elitist” and implied that he was “better” than the average American. On the Daily Show, Jon Stewart remarked in response, “I want somebody that’s better than me. If they don’t think they’re better than me then what the hell are they doing running for President? I want someone that’s embarrassingly superior to me.”
And as I’ve said before, that’s kind of the way that I feel about folks in the highest realms of our government. If they’re going to represent our country, I want them to be great people. Because one of the truths about this country is that it is filled with amazing people. Why can’t we seem to find any?
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