* called $330 Billion of unpaid taxes "astounding"

[Mugsy]

Anyone else noticed this?

Last night, in talking about "tax reform", President Bush said he had heard that "Each year $330 Billion is lost in unpaid taxes" and described that figure as "astounding".

Anyone else found it interesting that he finds "$330 Billion" to be an "astounding" number, but $300 Billion spent in Iraq doesn't even phase him?

:shrug:

[phantom power]

1. He's also not astounded by the $3 trillion that

his SS privatization plan will cost. Now, that's an astounding number.

[BOSSHOG]

2. Once again, bush was wrong

the taxes aren't unpaid, they are uncollected. Big difference bush. Don't put the onus on the taxpayer.

[jayfish]

3. Not To Mention That He Couched This...

as a problem with the middle class with no mention of corporations or the wealthy. Hold on to your wallets.

Jay

[MadHound]

4. No doubt, I noticed that also.

Why do I get the sinking feeling that "tax reform" is going to include a large section about increased auditing and collection from the poor and middle class(with increased fees and costs of course), while the rich will be ever more exempt.

And this is already occurring to a lesser extent now. I was listening to an NPR interview of an IRS collection agent a view weeks ago. His basic point was that the IRS is going to step up audits and collections from the poor and middle class, because it is from those groups of people they get more bang for their buck. The rich go out and get a phalanx of lawyers and accountants when they're auditted, increasing the workload and monetary outlay for the IRS. The poor and middle class lack the money to contest them, so they are basically forced to bend over and pay whatever the IRS determines is the correct amount.

And sad to say, the IRS can cook the audit anyway it chooses. Time and again it has been shown that you can take ten, twenty, a hundred different accountants, including those from the IRS, have them all do the same tax return, and wind up with different amounts from each one. Thus, I suppose that anybody can then be found to be a tax cheat:eyes:

[jayfish]

6. I Listened To That As Well...

didn't he try to CYA, real quick, after he said that?

Jay

[MadHound]

10. Yeah, he did

But the cat was out of the bag, and all that he could do was stumble and bumble.

Just pathetic. Just another example of how America's collective wealth is being transferred upwards to the rich, while the rest of us will be left out in the cold. Dickens and many others must be spinning in their graves right now.

[doodadem]

12. As a small business owner

I heard this segment of NPR also, and said, oh great--screwed again. Somehow they've decided that the self-employed are the biggest tax cheats, and that's who they're going to focus on. We're barely getting by in this recession, while they hand out huge breaks to big corporations--who already pay virtually NO taxes in this country. We get no breaks. Whatever you make, hand it over to the IRS.

[begin_within]

5. And what about the unpaid corporate taxes and loopholes?

[rkc3]

7. Or corporations who shield their income by sending it overseas?

[glitch]

8. But I thought taxes were BAD. Shouldn't he be gleeful that they aren't

being paid? Whose side is he on, anyway?

:sarcasm:

[BeFree]

9. Who's side?

I'd say his remark was more of a slap in the face to average taxpayers while sending a coded message to the richest. That message was: "I have cut your taxes by $300 billion, now haven't I? Is that not astounding?"

[Mugsy]

11. The cost of Iraq War plus 30.

Gee, between corporate tax loopholes, $330B in "unpaid taxes" and a war in Iraq that never should have been, is it any surprise we are ROCKETING into debt???

Anyone else read last month's story in Vanity Fair about the massive fraud in Iraq with KBR/Haliburton's contracts? The amount of fraud and waste... not THAT is "astounding"!

[begin_within]

13. He was told there would be no math questions.