Death and Taxes?

A C.O. searching a cell in a Key West prison turned up a mattress to reveal piles of tax forms hidden by the inmate who got angry when the C.O. found them, causing him to look at them more closely. I don't understand why a prison employee would need an inmate to get mad before becoming suspicious of scads of tax forms under a mattress, but the search was not being conducted at MIT, was it?

It seems the inmates at this and many other prisons have been filing fraudulent tax forms for years with the IRS and as long a their refunds total no more than $5,000, no one is the wiser. They use a tax form being circulated, complete with instructions, sending the forms off with an outsider's help -- and, no doubt, their return address. The money ultimately winds up in either their inmate account or an outside entity to which they have access, and our tax dollars are available to this lowest segment of society for their convenience.

Along with our tax dollars, a shining example of our state and federal employees hard at work. How and why is this so hard to control? I know why...as it is with every government misstep that involves great amounts of money, someone in government is lining there pocket with large amounts of it. I don't care if it's some IRS idiot between their smoke breaks or the greedy, potbellied C.O. looking the other way, someone is pocketing my tax dollars and yours. Are you going to do anything about it other than get mad and bitch to your coworkers around the water cooler tomorrow? Of course not. You never do anything about the thieves stealing from you other than comment on-line at the bottom of the page after reading the article. That's all you can be bothered to do and the theft continues. I can use your help.

The "Rebates" are an "Advance" Disappointment

Did you fall for the 2008 Bush Rebate? Many did and will realize next year that their tax bills will be $300 - $600 higher or their refunds will be $300 - $600 lower, depending on their "rebate". It is not a rebate. It is an advance. The government -- especially a government influenced by Curious George W. -- is not going to give the American people anything back. It is just giving up something it was going to have to give up a year later or take something it was going to take anyway a year sooner. We all got our hopes up for nothing and those who don't realize it yet will be pissed off next year when they figure it out. By then, Bush will finally be out of office and finger pointing won't be as useful, but point they will and nothing will come of it. Don't ruin their blissful ignorance. Let them spend one more year thinking their government cares about them.

Let's Write to Them to Tell Them to Stop Writing to Us

Franking is a term I use when my spouse, whose father's name was Frank, behaves too much like my father-in-law. I now see that Congress has another use for the term...a much more expensive use that wastes our tax dollars for this unnecessary process.
We've all gotten junk mail from our government, usually right before an election, but generally all year long, just to remind us that Congress does still exist and often busies itself with things about which we care very little or nothing at all. This, however is something that should have our complete attention. U.S. House members spent $20.3 million of our taxes last year just to send us mail. Do you remember each and every piece of mail you received from Congress last year? Okay, well that is asking a lot. Do you remember several pieces of mail? A few pieces? One? All our representatives go through to remind us they are still alive and you couldn't be bothered to remember one lousy, stinkin' postcard? How inconsiderate of you. These men and women go out of their way to spend our taxes on thinking up new ways to spend our taxes and you just don't care. It would not surprise me one bit if they stopped writing to you. Well, okay, it would surprise me if they stopped this expensive, albeit useless, inane practice that would save us millions annually. Just because we didn't know about the cost and even now that we do, we probably aren't going to do a damned thing about it, they will keep sending us mail about which we don't care, hardly ever even read, wastes our money and resources, kills our trees, pollutes our air, and in general, now pisses us off. What are you going to do about it? We could write to them to tell them to stop writing to us. Write to Congress