More Tax Trouble

Ron Kirk is the fourth nominee to the Obama administration to have "tax issues." Mr. Kirk owes $10,000 in back taxes. His case seems like an innocent mistake, but Taxgirl is not too sympathetic:

I truly believe that people make mistakes. Sometimes, people make those “mistakes” on purpose. The key to good character isn’t not making mistakes but fixing them once you’re aware of them. It seems that in government, you don’t fix them until the country is aware of them.

Obama’s team should be scrambling to make folks understand that this is not acceptable. A $10,000 tax liability from years ago doesn’t qualify as “a few minor issues.” It’s a big deal. You fix that kind of stuff as quickly as you can - not just when the press comes calling.

Need I say that Democrats and liberal bloggers are the ones who keep reminding us that taxes are the price we must pay to live in a civilized society? In The Road to Serfdom Hayek argued that only the devious and immoral are capable of centralized economic planning. Many entrepreneurship bloggers have wondered in recent weeks if the recent changes in policy and politics mean that the last 30 years of entrepreneurially driven growth are over. Will the growth in government control erode our entrepreneurial spirit?

N.B. I do not mean this as a snide partisan attack. President Nixon instituted all kinds of disastrous price controls and was constantly meddling in economic policy. Clearly he was nothing if not devious.