Emma Berry

Archive for the ‘Taxes’ Category

I’m not sure what is happening to conservative Tom Coburn.  It may be just because it is election year, but twice already in the past few months, I have agreed with this ultra conservative Republican Senator from Oklahoma and member of The Family (a group that I consider to be a religious cult). Coburn also served as adviser to Ensign, the Senator whose family paid off their son’s mistress to the tune of $100,000.

About a month ago Tom Coburn actually said that people should not just depend on Fox news as their one source.  Instead they should get their news and information from a variety of sources and draw their own conclusions thusly.

Now I read that Senator Tom Coburn has called, informally, for an audit of the Department of Defense, arguing that without a true sense of what is being spent and where, it will be impossible to achieve significant budget savings.

“The single most important step,” however, he concluded, “is to better understand how the Pentagon spends its money.”

I could not agree more, Senator Coburn.  That would be a great starting point.

The DOD and the Pentagon in particular have been getting a free ride on the backs of the American taxpayers for years.

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ADDITIONAL EMMA COMMENTs:

If you don’t think there is a need for what Senator Coburn is suggesting, read this:

KBR Halliburton bills $5 million for Mechanics who work 43 minutes a month.

Ironic, but one day before 9/11 Donald Rumsfeld, then Secretary of Defense discussed his newly declared war against the Pentagon Bureaucracy.

Here is how bad it was, and today it is even worse:  THEY COULD NOT TRACK $2.3 TRILLION!

The real truth about what George Bush’s tax cuts and irresponsible unfunded spending cost Americans

A few days ago, I wrote a comment on Bill Baumbach’s great political blog–The Collin County Observer regarding Paul Pogue, a man who admitted that he  knowingly evaded paying his taxes.  I’ve forgotten exactly what I wrote, but it was a comment to the effect that I wished that whenever some person or company was convicted of a felony that they could NEVER do business with any state, local or federal government office again.  If I am your representative, that is one of the laws that I will write and pass.  It is absurd that our government continues to do business with convicted felons who continue to rip us off.  It’s not like they have seen the error of their ways.  They continue to defraud the American taxpayers.  Perhaps we could give them a “one-strike” law.

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In response to that, I got the following email from Mr. Pogue’s brother-in-law:

“First of all Paul does not do business with the U.S. Government.  He pleaded guilty to protect his workers and family he is innocent.

I am Paul’s brother in law and have been for 34 years and I have to say he is one of the nicest men I have ever met. Everybody loves him and he never burns bridges. He put me through college even though I was not his son and cared for me like a father. I have seen him give money to people about to lose there house or money for a car if they didn’t have one. He has put multiple kids through college and given millions back to schools over the years after finishing jobs for the school district. He hates to fire anyone, he almost gets sick when he does because he cares for his people so much. He is a thither and a man of faith and has given millions to church. He has built hundreds of churches in Mexico and also built orphanages and schools in third world countries. The person who should be on trial here is his CPA. Paul followed the lead of his CPA and unfortunately the CPA gets of Scott free. If the IRS looked at the character of this man and all the good he has done and continues to do they would leave him alone and go after the real criminals in America. There are millions of Hispanics in America that never pay taxes because they always ask for cash, but do they ever get audited? No! because they don’t have a green card and never file taxes. Paul has hundreds of friends that would agree with me about Paul’s character and they will all stand by him through this situation as a Godly man is put on trial.”

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BACKGROUND:

Pleading guilty, Paul Pogue of McKinney, Texas, admitted that he under reported his income by nearly 1/2 million dollars.

Pogue, stated, in court, that he was employed as a consultant for a construction company, acknowledged in court that he stated on his 2003 tax return that he only had taxable income of $4,594,052 for that year, when he knew he had taxable income of $5,588,249.70.  Pogue admitted in court documents that he also knowingly understated his taxable income on his 2004 and 2005 individual tax returns.  Pogue admitted reporting only $3,111,715 in taxable income for 2004, when he knew his taxable income was $3,686,784.40, and reporting only $2,908,235 in taxable income for 2005, when he knew he actually had $3,030,684.70 in taxable income that year.  Pogue acknowledged that the total tax loss resulting from his additional, unreported income was $473,680.53.

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My response to Mr Pogue’s brother-in-law

I’m sorry for your personal pain and grief.  However, even though Mr. Pogue may  not do business with the  “U.S. government”, he did do business with state and local governments and these entities get their funds for operations and paying contractors like Mr. Pogue from American taxpayers.

According to law, Sarbanes Oxley Act of 2002 to be exact, CEO’s are responsible for any document they sign regarding their financial status. Prior to this law, they were able to get off the hook by saying–”Don’t blame me.  Blame my accountant.”   This law was put into place in part as a reaction to the outrage created by crooks of Enron.  Thanks to their lies and thievery, many of their employees are now working as greeters at Wal-Mart because their pensions were stolen from them by liars at the top.

As for the good deeds that Mr. Pogue has done–that is not the way the law works–nor can it and be just.  We don’t have a “Hail Mary” legal system where you do so many good deeds and then it’s ok for you to cheat on your income taxes and/or break some other law.   Mr. Pogue pleaded guilty because he was guilty of breaking the law and he got caught.  Even if he wanted to blame his accountant (which in fairness to Mr. Pogue and  judging from what you wrote to me about his good deeds, he did not), it would have been to no avail –again, because by law he is prohibited from doing that.  He, like all of CEOs, is legally  responsible for the financial documents that he signs.

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People who do not pay their taxes are one of the reasons for our deficit.  Of  course there are many other reasons for our deficit.  But every year there is what the Congressional Budget office calls a “tax gap” of $360 billion dollars.  Every year for the past 10 years.  In 2008 Max Baucus, head of the Senate Finance Committee said that he was going to “look into it.”  I’m still waiting.  If I am sent to Washington, you can bet that I will push my friends in Congress to push back on Baucus to close this gap.

Here in Texas we have our own version of Robin Hood–ours, like many of those in DC, robs from the poor and gives to the rich.

Do YOU know what the “Texas Enterprise Fund” is?  If you don’t and you work for a living, you better find out.

I wonder how many constituents in the THIRD CONGRESSIONAL DISTRICT OF TEXAS know what Rick Perry is doing with the money that is withheld from their checks for unemployment taxes?

I wonder how many of them would be thrilled and cheerful upon learning that to date Rick Perry has, with the permission of the Texas legislature (another whole can of worms) turned  Texas taxpayers  hard earned tax dollars over to multibillion dollar Wall Street corporations like Bank of America?

Perry couches his give-away of taxpayer dollars to corporations in the name of “job creation.” Why should taxpayers money be used to bribe multibillion dollar corporations to promise to create jobs?   These corporations were given the money on their PROMISE. When is the last time that anyone paid you on your promise to do work? Most of us get paid after the work is done or in increments as the work progresses and we deliver satisfactorily.  This is totally irresponsible stewardship of the taxpayers’ money.  In my opinion, Perry should be impeached for it.

The “Texas Enterprise Fund” is just another fine example of a avowed “conservative’s” give away of taxpayer dollars to support corporate welfare for the rich.  In my opinion, this is neither a conservative nor a prudent stewardship of the tax monies of ordinary hard-working citizens.

The State unemployment fund has transferred $161.5 million to Perry’s job fund scheme since the “conservative” morons in the Texas legislature gave him permission to do so. [Note: if Rush Limbaugh and Rahm Emanual can call people "retards" I'll take the license to call some "morons."]

The state unemployment fund (Texas’ Unemployment Compensation Trust Fund) is running out of money to pay benefits to all the state’s laid-off workers, including those laid off by corporations subsidized by the Texas Enterprise Fund.

THINK ABOUT FOR A MINUTE TEXANS: The money that has been taken out of your weekly/monthly paychecks to pay for your unemployment in case you lose your job has been funneled to rich multibillion dollar corporations who need it worse than you do.

I think we need a new definition of the word “conservative” because what I see that is defined as “conservative” looks more like “criminal” to me.  I didn’t give Rick Perry or the Texas legislature permission to rob my contributions for my unemployment insurance, did  you? I also think we need to remind people like Rick Perry that part of his responsibility is to be a good steward of the money garnered from the workers of Texas who actually do pay their taxes.

Here is just one example of Rick Perry’s fraudulent give-away to the rich:

Perry forked over $20 million dollars to the Bank of America. They have not kept their agreement with the state to create jobs.  Now Bank of America will return $8.45 of that $20 million.  Where is the other $11.55 million of the taxpayer’s money?  Where is the interest on that money?  You can bet if Bank of  America had loaned this money to an ordinary taxpayer that we would be 29% interest for the honor.

I am surprised that Rick Perry has not been tarred and feathered.  It’s embarrassing that the people in this state have voted against their self-interests, not to mention self-preservation, twice! Maybe by this time they have learned their lessons.  If not, Perry with his “conservative” privatization schemes will have us paying a toll to back out of our own drive ways.

Go here to read a full report on Perry’s misuse of common funds of the people.