A Tax Revolt...Within the IRS

The people who make sure you pay your taxes are not impressed with the Obama appointees who don't pay theirs:

WASHINGTON — The Treasury secretary, who oversees the Internal Revenue Service, didn’t pay all his taxes. Neither did a few other top nominees for President Barack Obama’s administration. Now, as tonight’s tax deadline looms, some Americans are rhetorically asking: What would happen to me if I did the same thing?

The resentful reaction to such disclosures resonates not just among the anti-tax people organizing protests around the United States on Thursday but in low- and high-income neighborhoods — and is even discussed in the hallways of the IRS.

The most criticized nominee with tax problems has been Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, who owed $34,000 in payroll and Social Security taxes from 2001 and 2004 and didn’t pay all of it until Obama nominated him. But a few other nominees had similar tax issues, including two weeks ago when Kathleen Sebelius, Obama’s pick to run head Health and Human Services, said she owed the Treasury $7,070.

“Our members are upset and angry,” said Colleen Kelley, president of the National Treasury Employees Union, referring to concern bubbling up inside the IRS over strict rules that can cost IRS agents their jobs if they make a mistake, while Geithner and others are treated with relative leniency. In addition, the Geithner case is making the work of IRS compliance agents a bit harder, she said.

To those upset IRS employees - head over to Lafayette Park later today. You can join the Tea Party.