311,604 Federal Workers doing their part to prevent government waste

Several years ago I began awarding trophies called "The Whitey" to citizens who did their part to eliminate government waste.
The best way to eliminate government waste is to avoid paying your taxes.  If you don't give them your money, they can't waste it.  
An astounding number of Whiteys went to rejected (and confirmed) members of Obama's cabinet.  Timmy "TurboTax" Geithner, Tom Daschle, etc etc etc all did their part to keep their hard earned dollars out of The U.S. Treasury.  Hit the "Whiteys" label at the bottom to read about previous award winners.

Lord have mercy, they're still trying to devalue the trophy.  

From the Tax Prof Blog:

311,566 federal workers and retirees owed more than $3.5 billion in back income taxes in 2011 (up from $3.4 billion in 2010, $3.3 billion in 2009, $3.0 billion in 2008, and $2.7 billion in 2007).

And from Investor's Business Daily.  Looks like 40 of Barack's lackeys and handmaidens have been doing their share:

A new report from the Internal Revenue Service has just revealed that 40 of Obama's White House aides owe their employer, the federal government, a total of $333,485 in back taxes.
This is the third straight year that the chief executive of the United States has been unable to get his own staff members to keep up with a citizen's legal income tax obligations. to the tune of hundreds of thousands of dollars in back taxes owed. All this while Obama has made such rhetorical hay about corporations and the wealthy paying their fair share.

That's 311,604 current and former suckers of the government tit who are doing their part to keep their own money from being wasted by Barack H. Obama. 

Here are your Whitey Awards !!

Claire McCaskill - doing her part to prevent government waste

According to a bunch of Republicans in Missouri, Senator Claire McCaskill never saw a tax that she didn't love:

McCaskill has opposed every tax relief package that passed the Congress over the last five years. Those tax cuts included marriage penalty relief, death tax relief, an increase in the child tax credit and small business tax relief.

Well, those taxes were for the little people, those everyday Americans who don't have to worry so much about their money being wasted.  And let it be known that Senator McCaskill has done her part to prevent government waste. 
I give out an award called "The Whitey" to people who prevent government waste.  But only if they do it by not paying their taxes (the only guaranteed way to ensure government won't blow the money). 

Go here to see a list of previous winners. 

Reverend Al Sharpton, through a spectacular effort of gall and hypocrisy, has already won the 2011 trophy.  The best that Senator McCaskill can do is claim runner-up. 


Here's Hot Air on McCaskill's efforts to take the trophy:

McCaskill has been answering questions about the plane since POLITICO recently reported that she billed taxpayers for a political trip around Missouri. POLITICO also reported that McCaskill spent $76,000 from her Senate budget on trips on the aircraft over the past four years, prompting the senator to refund the Treasury Department more than $88,000 for the cost of the trips plus pilot fees.

McCaskill’s announcement Monday is the latest twist in a political scandal that has dogged her for the past two weeks. The expensive fiasco clashes with her self-made image as a reformer and good-government advocate during her first term in the Senate. McCaskill has now shelled out more than $375,000 in payments to cover the cost the plane flights and back taxes, a series of events the senator herself has called “embarrassing.”

On top of this, McCaskill signed on in February as a co-sponsor of Senate legislation that would fire federal employees if they are “seriously delinquent” in paying their own federal taxes…
“There are people I could blame for this, but I know better. As an auditor, I know I should have checked for myself. I take full responsibility for the mistake,” added McCaskill, Missouri’s former state auditor from 1999 to 2007. “I should have checked the documentation. I should have been asking the questions. I shouldn’t have assumed that somebody was doing it.”

Mistake, my ass.  Senator McCaskill, you were just trying to earn a Whitey.  You registered the plane in Delaware (where you didn't pay taxes on it) before you moved it closer to home in Missouri (where you didn't pay taxes on it.) 
Here's your nomination trophy:

Here's a rather harsh anti-Claire video that the Republicans are going to be throwing down soon.  Don't they understand that the Senator was just trying to put the money to its best use, rather than see it wasted? 



Here's the link to a GENIUS "Claire Air" website.  The in-flight entertainment is outstanding. 

Al Sharpton gets a Whitey

Waaaay back in January 2009, I began taking nominations for something called "The Whitey Award".  Whited Sepulchre = Whitewashing a stain = Whitey Award, etc etc etc....(You either get the joke or you don't.) 

The Whitey Award goes to those who have done the most to prevent government waste.  And the best way to keep governments from wasting your money?  Don't pay taxes. 

Well, everybody with good sense does that to some degree.  But not all of us clamor for more and more government spending.  That's what'll get you a Whitey.  Hit the post label down below to see all the other nominees.  Heck, back when Obama was trying to fill his Cabinet with Democrats who had paid their taxes, it felt like the Special Olympics around here.  We used a 10-year-supply of trophies in six months ! 

Here's the latest nominee.  I know it's only February, but this character is so blatant that we might have to retire the trophy for 2011.  Is there any point in holding the competition for the remainder of the year? 
Here's The New York Post:

The Rev. Al Sharpton, who has vowed to clean up his fiscal house, has a new tax lien to pay.
Sharpton owes $359,973 to the IRS for 2009 personal income tax, according to documents on file with the city.
Public records show he owes a total of $3.7 million in city, state and federal taxes, including penalties, dating to 2002. But Sharpton's spokeswoman, Rachel Noerdlinger, said that he had paid back "well over seven figures" as part of agreements with the state and IRS and that the liens remained on the books as "a matter of bureaucracy."

Of course it's a matter of bureaucracy !  When you lobby for more and more spending, you're going to get bureaucracy.  Bureaucracy that could screw up a brass donkey.   

Sharpton made $250,000 as head of the nonprofit National Action Network in 2009, a year that ended with the group owing $1.1 million in taxes and having just $36,397 cash on hand.
The organization also pays for first-class or charter travel for Sharpton and other NAN staff, according to its 2009 tax return. Noerdlinger declined to say for whom.

Congratulations, Reverend Al ! 

Because of your constant lobbying and yammering for every spending program that comes down the pike, programs that you try to avoid paying for, you have accomplished something that no other human could. 

In your case, to be nominated is to win.  Yeah.  In February.  You've won the 2011 Whitey Award. 

Unless Obama, Pelosi, Reid or Paul Krugman gets caught trying to keep their own money for themselves, the 2011 trophy is retired. 

Another Democrat senator with a yacht....

When it rains it pours.  See previous post.  Nominees for The Whitey Award are coming out of the woodwork.  Or in this case, the ocean.

Democrat Senator (and all-around man of the people) Jeff Greene and Democrat Senator (and all-around man of the people) John Kerry both own yachts.  Greene's is named "Summerwind".
Like Senator Kerry, the hero of the previous post, Senator Greene is doing his part to fight government waste.
He's doing this by not paying taxes on his yacht.

Here's The Miami Herald, mostly reporting on Jeff Greene's yacht anchor supposedly going through a coral reef, but eventually getting to the money quote:

Greene bought Summerwind in 2003, registering it in the Marshall Islands, a well-known tax haven.



The article doesn't say how much money Greene saved from being wasted with this maneuver, but it might rival Senatory Kerry's $500,000.00  
Congratulations, Senator Greene.  You've won The Whitey Award for eliminating government waste by not paying taxes.

John Kerry - doing his part to eliminate government waste

A couple of years ago, I started something called The Whitey Awards.  Hit the post tab below for a list of previous nominees and winners. 
The idea behind the Whiteys was to recognize those who have done the most to eliminate government waste.  The best way to eliminate government waste, of course, is to avoid paying taxes.  They can't waste what you don't give them. 
Previous nominees include Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, and the great host of people who tried and failed to make it into Obama's cabinet. 
Here's a new one, noted by The Jammie Wearing Fool, who points us to a piece in The Boston Herald:

Sen. John Kerry, who has repeatedly voted to raise taxes while in Congress, dodged a whopping six-figure state tax bill on his new multimillion-dollar yacht by mooring her in Newport, R.I.


Isabel - Kerry’s luxe, 76-foot New Zealand-built Friendship sloop with an Edwardian-style, glossy varnished teak interior, two VIP main cabins and a pilothouse fitted with a wet bar and cold wine storage - was designed by Rhode Island boat designer Ted Fontaine.

But instead of berthing the vessel in Nantucket, where the senator summers with the missus, Teresa Heinz, Isabel’s hailing port is listed as “Newport” on her stern.

Could the reason be that the Ocean State repealed its Boat Sales and Use Tax back in 1993, making the tiny state to the south a haven - like the Cayman Islands, Bermuda and Nassau - for tax-skirting luxury yacht owners?

Cash-strapped Massachusetts still collects a 6.25 percent sales tax and an annual excise tax on yachts. Sources say Isabel sold for something in the neighborhood of $7 million, meaning Kerry saved approximately $437,500 in sales tax and an annual excise tax of about $70,000.

John Kerry has prevented the government from wasting more than $500,000.00, simply by not paying any taxes on his luxury yacht. 
Congratulations, sir ! 
You win a Whitey !

What to do with your new Tim Geithner currency:

As you probably know, the Secretary Of The Treasury gets to put his name on all the new currency.
As you probably know, the Secretary Of The Treasury went out of his way to avoid paying his taxes, despite his advocacy of lots and lots of new taxes. 
Go here to order your Tim Geithner "Tax Cheat" stamp. 
Yeah, it's supposed to be a crime to deface currency.  It's also a crime to be a tax cheat. 
Call it Civil Disobedience.  A consciousness-raising event. 

And surprise, surprise, the guy who is selling the "Tax Cheat" stamps is now the victim of an audit from Geithner's Goon Squad.  Go here to contribute to his defense fund. 

Another nomination for The Whitey - Jeffrey Goldstein

A little more than a year ago, I set up an awards program for those who had done the most to eliminate government waste. 
There are lots of ways to stop government from wasting your money, the simplest of which is.... don't pay  taxes.  I named the award "The Whitey". 
The nominations go to the best individual effort to reduce government waste by not paying taxes.   
Previous nominees include Timothy Geithner, Tom Daschle, Rahm Emmanuel, Hillary Clinton, and the two guys who took their dead friend's rotting corpse into a liquor store in a failed effort to cash the dead guy's final Social Security check.  (Those guys wanted to spend the money on alcohol, rather than see it returned to the Treasury and wasted.) 

When I first set up the program, I was shocked, shocked, I say ! to discover how many people work so hard to keep their money away from the government.  Especially when those same people claim that government makes the wisest decisions about how to spend money. 

During the first months of the Obama administration, there were so many "winners" that it was looking like the Special Olympics.  So many people had been working so hard to protect their own wealth from....people like themselves.  I changed the program from "winners" to "nominees".   We might declare a winner at the end of Obama's first term, or at the end of the Obama presidency, whichever one the Lord blesses us with first. 

We have another nomination, this one from Byron York of The Washington Examiner:

Jeffrey Goldstein, the Obama administration's nominee to be the Treasury Department's Undersecretary for Domestic Finance, worked for a private equity fund that set up offshore shell corporations which allowed investors to avoid U.S. income tax, according to Senate Republican sources. The Senate Finance Committee is set to hold a hearing on Goldstein's nomination Tuesday.

The firm for which Goldstein worked was Hellman & Friedman, and the shell corporations were located in the Cayman Islands. Goldstein, who was at Hellman & Friedman from 2004 to 2008, received income from the offshore investments -- money he was able to enjoy while paying a lower tax rate than most Americans pay on regular income. Goldstein earned what is called "carried interest," which is taxed at the lower capital gains rate rather than be taxed as regular income. It is unclear how much Goldstein made during his time with Hellman & Friedman.

The arrangements appear to have been legal, but in the past, prominent Democrats, including President Obama, have strongly criticized such tax-avoidance schemes. On the campaign trail, Obama often denounced "corporate loopholes and offshore tax havens," and last May, he unveiled a plan to reform "a tax code that makes it all too easy for a small number of individuals and companies to abuse overseas tax havens to avoid paying any taxes at all." Just last week, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who would be Goldstein's boss, testified on Capitol Hill that "We want to close the so-called 'carried interest' loophole by taxing the income of hedge fund and private equity managers in the same way we tax the income of teachers and firefighters." Democrats have often pointed to the Cayman Islands as a particularly notorious tax haven.

Congratulations, Jeffrey Goldstein ! !   Your efforts to protect your money to the group that forcibly takes our money....well, all your hard work has finally been noticed.  Here's your Whitey. 

One quick note for everyone who advocates government schools, government healthcare, government mail delivery, government wars, government retirement, government subsidies, and government-run traffic signals:

Do you claim any tax deductions, and if so, why?  Do you ever feel guilty for not paying more? 

Another nominee for The Whitey - Charles Rangel

Six or seven months ago, when The Teleprompter Jesus was trying to fill his cabinet, I created something called The Whitey Award. The Whitey is given for the best effort at eliminating government waste. Special consideration is given to nominees who accomplish this by not giving the government any of their money.

Previous nominees include Tom Daschle, Rahm Emmanuel, She Whose Name Is Not Spoken, Tim Geithner, Hilda Solis, and the two guys who wheeled a corpse into a convenience store in an effort to cash the dead guy's Social Security check. (Hey, if that dead man's money had gone back to the government, it would've been spent on Clunkers, stimulus programs, or bailouts, instead of drugs and alcohol.) You can go here to read the qualifications of each Whitey nominee.

Early on in the Obama administration, I thought I was going to have to retire the trophy. The playing field was almost like the Special Olympics: too many winners. Then we went about three months without a new scandal, and we seemed to have achieved tax-paying compliance from those we pay our taxes to.

Then comes Charlie Rangel. Rangel is chair of The House Ways And Means Committee, and controls more money than Fidel Castro, Hugo Chavez, Kim Jong-Il, or any other socialist I can think of. And he goes to great lengths not to share any of the pile that is his. Here's a blogger named Ripclawe, from someplace in the Caribbean, on Rangel's latest accomplishment:

Representative Charles B. Rangel failed to report hundreds of thousands of dollars in income and assets on his financial disclosure forms for 2002 through 2006, including tens of thousands of dollars in rental income from a Harlem brownstone he sold in 2004, according to records filed this month with the clerk of the House of Representatives.


Mr. Rangel, who is facing investigations by two House subcommittees into his personal finances and fund-raising, filed amended financial disclosure forms on Aug. 12 acknowledging that he had omitted an array of assets, business transactions and sources of income. They include a Merrill Lynch Global account valued between $250,000 and $500,000; tens of thousands of dollars in municipal bonds; and $30,000 to $100,000 in rent from a multifamily brownstone building he owned on West 132nd Street.

So to Representative Charles B. Rangel, you have our respect and undying gratitude for doing your part to eliminate government waste. Your nomination has been recorded, and we wish you good luck beating the rap on this one.
If you ever get your hands on your own tax money, you'll probably just waste it.

Former Dallas Mayor Ron Kirk is doing his part to end government waste !

Here's another nominee for "The Whitey Award". Blah blah blah. There are now so many nominees that it's become a chore to post them.

Next time a Democrat is elected president, all nominees for "The Whitey" are going to have to submit a petition with 500 signatures before they're eligible for consideration. This is freakin' ridiculous.

Anyway, here goes....

Former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk has tried to eliminate government waste. He's done this by not paying all of his taxes, and we as a nation should applaud his effort. That makes Ron Kirk, along with a great host of other Obama nominees, eligible for "The Whitey" award.

Hit the "Whiteys" tab below for more info on the prize. (yawn)

Needed: A vetter for the vetters

There are several ways to reduce government waste. The best method, of course, is the one least discussed: don't give the government any of your money.

That's the spirit I've tried to honor with "The Whitey Award", a small trophy given for eliminating government waste by ignoring the tax code. Click on "The Whiteys" at the bottom of this post for a listing of all the nominees.

Now people are trying too hard to draw attention to themselves, and I might have to retire the trophy. This isn't supposed to be the Special Olympics. Everyone can't be a winner. It's not an honor if the entire democratic party gets one.

The awards may have gotten the attention of The White House, since Obama's cabinet walls were starting to look like the Trophy Room at Notre Dame. Here's Politico:

The White House has dramatically tightened its vetting process following embarrassing revelations of past tax problems by several nominees, according to two officials familiar with the process...."A narrative was building, and the president asked us to be more vigilant in the vetting process," said a source involved in the vetting.

Dang right, a narrative was building. And the narrative stated that The Obamessiah's disciples weren't tithing, despite advocating more spending by The Church Of Big Government. It was becoming an embarrasment.

So White House counsel Greg Craig has taken over vetting ! ! Here's The Washington Post:

Now, amid a series of embarrassing personnel stumbles that have bogged down the administration's attempt to move swiftly to its legislative agenda, Craig is assuming control of the vetting process for nominees. That portfolio includes helping shepherd the next choice for secretary of health and human services, who will replace former senator Thomas A. Daschle (D-S.D.) after his decision to step aside because of tax problems, and making sure the nomination of Rep. Hilda L. Solis (D-Calif.) as labor secretary does not fall victim to the same fate after tax liens against her husband's business were revealed yesterday.

Well, that's admirable.

There's just one little problem. Click here to see an online ad for Noyes Graphics, a design business run by someone named Derry Noyes. Note the business address.

Then click here to see if Derry Noyes, or anyone else, has applied to run a business from that address. (It's a private residence.)

Click here to read the Wikipedia article on Tax Evasion.

Click here to see who Derry Noyes married.

Congratulations, Greg Craig ! You are in charge of making sure no one else in the Obama administration wins a Whitey ! And now you're a winner ! You sneaky son-of-a-gun.

Astounding. Truly astounding.

Who is going to vett the vetters?

Rahm Emmanuel - The Latest "Whitey" Nominee

It's happening again.
It's Groundhog Day.

Can someone explain to me, using little-bitty words that I can understand, why it is that so many people near the top of the Obama administration don't believe they should have to pay taxes? Why do they all want to spend your money instead of their own?

(Ahemm.....) Could it be that they don't believe their own rhetoric? Maybe way down deep, they believe that they're the best judge of how their paycheck should be spent?

This time it's Rahm Emmanuel. He's been living at the home of a lobbyist, and not paying taxes on the "imputed income" from that arrangement.

(The lobbyist has Rahm Emmanuel listed as a client, along with Emmanuel's Mommy Party Congressional Campaign Committee. That's a secondary problem that everyone is too busy to worry about.)

This is becoming tiresome. When I created The Whitey Award for "Eliminating Government Waste By Not Giving Government Any Money", I had no idea that I'd need a playoff system.
So Rahm Emmanuel is now a nominee.
Remember when, just 3 weeks ago, candidates for this award could demonstrate some false modesty and say "Oh, it's an honor just to be nominated...." ???? Remember that innocent era?

Well, it's not that way any more. It's not an honor for anybody if we have to nominate everybody.

Is Hilda Solis worthy of a "Whitey" nomination?

The nominees for "The Whitey" keep pouring in.
Click on "The Whiteys" label below for a thorough explanation of the prize and our current nominees.

Our latest Whitey Award candidate is Hilda Solis, President Obama's nominee for Secretary Of Labor, whose confirmation is being postponed because her husband hasn't paid all of his taxes.

Does this really count? Is Representative Solis worthy of inclusion in the same category as Daschle, Geithner, and Clinton just because her family's savings were hidden away under her husband's side of the mattress?

Another topic.... If you're an advocate for bigger government, more government spending, bailouts, giveaways, socialized everything, and economic stimuli (packaged and unpackaged), isn't it just a tad contradictory to claim any tax deductions? Don't your political views imply that Uncle Sam can spend your money more wisely than you?

Another Nomination For "The Whitey" - Tom Daschle

There are several ways to eliminate government waste. The best way, of course, is to avoid giving the government any of your money.

That was the subject of a post I did a couple of weeks ago, where I nominated several great Americans for "The Whitey", an award given for hiding money from the government.

Nominees included Hillary Clinton, Timothy Geithner, and the two guys who wheeled a corpse into a convenience store in an effort to cash the dead guy's Social Security check. (Hey, if that dead man's money had gone back to the government, it would've been spent on inaugurations, stimulus programs, or bailouts, instead of drugs and alcohol.) A few commenters made other nominations, but no individual or group received more than one vote.

To complicate matters, we now have another candidate. Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, nominee for Secretary Of Health And Human Services, neglected paying $147,000.00 in taxes.


As nominee for the Secretary Of Healthy And Human Services position, Daschle has proposed a Federal Health Board to oversee most, if not all, of our health care system.

This would not be cheap.

Daschle made similar proposals in his recent book "Critical: What We Can Do About The Health Care Crisis". Here's an escerpt from the Publisher's Weekly review of his book: "The U.S. is the only industrialized nation that does not guarantee necessary health care to all of its citizens, and as former senator Daschle observes, Skeptics say we can't afford to cover everyone.... blah blah blah."


Well, of course we can't afford to cover everyone. So why should Daschle bother giving the government an extra $147,000.00 of his money ? A brilliant move on Daschle's part, especially in light of his consistent support of higher taxes for high earners.





Like Tim Geithner before him, Daschle tried to suck up to the IRS before his confirmation hearing. Yes, he eventually wrote them a check. Yes, that's a tragedy. But at least he tried.


Therefore, I nominate former senator, current lobbyist, and future Obama cabinet member Tom Daschle for The Whitey award.

I also propose that we end these long confirmation hearings immediately, and simply rubber stamp all future cabinet members. With this ghastly crew of tax-dodger nominees, there's no telling how much more tax money they'll discover hidden away in mattresses.

And we wouldn't want to see it wasted.

The First Annual Whitey Awards

Government waste has always been a favorite topic on this site.

It's time for the readers of The Whited Sepulchre blog to vote on who in the last year has done the most to eliminate government waste.
There are several ways to end government waste. The best method, of course, is the one least discussed: don't give the government any of your money.

I'm going to nominate three candidates below. Nominate others as write-ins if you wish. The candidate with the highest total will receive the highly coveted Whitey Award.

And the nominees are:

1) [the President-elect's] nominee for Secretary Of The Treasury, Timothy Geithner, who at the time of his nomination for the post of chief tax collector, owed $42,000.00 in unpaid taxes, and, according to The Washington Post, is also being investigated for including using his child's time at overnight camps to calculate deductions for dependent-care, taking deductions for ineligible donations to charity and failing to pay an early-withdrawal penalty from a retirement plan.

A brilliant man, Mr. Geithner. Had he paid that 42K in taxes, it would've been wasted. Had he not deducted sending his kids to camp as a childcare expense, that money would've been blown on something useless. Timothy Geithner will be hard to beat.

2) James P. O’Hare, and David J. Dalaia. This is the duo that wheeled their deceased friend's rotting corpse into a check-cashing store in a failed attempt to cash their dead friend's $355 Social Security check.

Yes, they failed. Yes, they might have spent the $355 on alcohol. But if that money had stayed in The Treasury, it would've been given to some millionaire as an agricultural subsidy. A noble failure, and worthy of consideration for The Whitey.

3) Hillary Clinton, our next Secretary of State. Ms. Clinton's act of heroism didn't occur in the last 12 months, but since this is the first year The Whitey has ever been awarded, I'm allowing it for consideration. It is, after all, my damn award.

Former Senator Clinton, lover of Big Government, Policy Wonk, and disparager of Free Markets and Nafta, once claimed a two dollar tax deduction for donating some of Bill's used underwear to charity.

Remember, it's not the quantity saved, it's the quality. Who else would go to such extreme lengths to save such a paltry sum from The Gaping Maw Of The Beast? Every penny counts.

Those are my nominees. You may wish to nominate others.