Charlie has a few minor tax issues that he has been dealing with. He forgot to report a little income from different sources. He owns a Villa in the Caribbean and failed to report income estimated at $75,000 per year. I believe Charlie likes the Caribbean. It’s a shame that he can’t getaway from the taxes on his getaway! Paul Krugman, economist from the New York Times, excused this by saying “it really has no national significance”.

Charlie sold a building on 132nd Street in Harlem for a cool million dollars and forgot to report that to the IRS, too. Along the same lines he did not report income from rental properties in New Jersey. I will refrain from any New Jersey jokes here. One of the excuses given by a friend in media said that Charlie was never really good with paperwork. I find that terribly amusing considering that Charlie is the Chairman of the House Ways and Means Committee – the group that writes the federal tax laws!

The next time I have trouble with the law or the IRS, I wonder how far I will get with the excuses of ignorance or not good with paperwork. It worked for Charlie. Another miscue was not reporting a Credit Union account with $250-$500K on deposit. The IRS allowed him to go back and check the appropriate boxes and just pay the taxes owed. And guess what, they were kind enough to dismiss the penalties and interest. Isn’t that what they do for everyone?

I have some other excuses for Charlie and other politicians to use.

• There is a whole bunch of stuff with his name on it in Harlem. It just wouldn’t look right.
• He is not dead yet. Everyone knows that being a congressmen in Washington is a job for life.
• He is 79 years old. Imagine the banquets and celebrations we would miss on his 80th birthday, June 11th. I hear that 80 years in Congressional years is only 40 in human years.
• He has won 20 elections in a row. He always runs unopposed, that democracy thing just slows him down. Power is much more impressive than paperwork.

I don’t really mean to hang Charlie out here alone. I could have written this about most of the career politicians, republicans or democrats. I wish we could wake up to the fact that though a person may enter politics for the noble purpose of public service, there is a point where the service turns personal. Why do we continue to vote the same people in over and over? We don’t need constitutional term limits, just vote!