To Pay or Not to Pay...

According to a report in the Washington Post today, the Internal Revenue Service has notified the Department of the Interior that, as of September 30, 2009, 2.36% of its employees owe back taxes. A check of the Department's website http://www.doi.gov/employees/ shows that it has approximately seventy thousand employees. Simple math leads to the conclusion that there are approximately 1,650 delinquents.

Since these people are violating their obligations, as citizens, to comply with the law - regardless of whether or not they like it - they should be summarily dismissed. Better, since tax deadbeats are likely not the most productive of employees, they would hardly be missed and there would be no need to replace them. Such action would be a start, albeit somewhat modest, in the process of reducing the size and cost of our government.

But why stop at the Interior Department?

The process can be repeated in every other Department and Agency. Assuming that the percentage of delinquents is substantially the same throughout the government, and given that there are approximately 1.43 million civilians employed by the Federal Government, there is an opportunity to reduce the size of government by nearly 34,000 deadbeats.

Just don't hold your breath waiting for it to happen!