Here, in Canada, we’re in the middle of a political scandal, where some Conservative party senators appear to have tried to scam the system and claim housing expenses which they shouldn’t. And on top of it, the Prime Minister’s chief of staff gave one of them the money ($90,000Can) to pay it back so that the investigation would stop (hmmm, ulterior motive there?). Of course, the senators are saying that the rules weren’t clear and that they just made a mistake. And yet the one who was given the money actually said he took out a bank loan to pay it back. He appears to be piling lie upon lie.
What concerns me, apart from the basic dishonesty, is how divorced from the rest of us these people are. We’re talking hundreds of thousands of dollars in false claims.
For crying out loud, $90,000 is a LOT of money to most of us. How many of us could come up with that to GIVE to a co-worker to help them out of a debt?
Almost daily I see and hear things that remind me that our society has gone deep diving into an ocean of narcissism. It’s becoming a world of ‘me first’, of ‘I deserve to have whatever I want’, of ‘what I want is more important than what you want’.
In the US, the IRS commissioner resigned a couple of days ago for unfairly targeting organizations because of their politics. In Connecticut, a sting operation uncovered that some the state politicians are for sale. I just can’t resist this quote, “A local politician is a $100 whore, a state politician is a $1,000 whore, and a national politician is a $10,000 whore,” says Ray Soucy.
In France, the former budget minister recently admitted to lying about a secret bank account to evade taxes.
In Britain, the defence minister took his buddy on government trips and says he ‘mistakenly’ blurred the lines between his personal interests and his government interests. About six months ago, there was the same sort of housing scandal in Britain that we’re experiencing here in Canada.
What hope do we have that these people can actually understand and empathize with our plight, much less actually stand up for us?
All of us poor souls around the world that are affected by the US outdated concept of citizenship-based taxation have to rely on our governments to protect us.
What are the chances these corrupt, narcissistic people will champion our cause, will save us from the united states of arrogance? What are the chances they even give a crap?
Yes, I know there are honest, caring, law-abiding people in government service. What I don’t know is if there are still enough of these people that they can stem the tsunami of self-interest that seems to be growing stronger every day.
You forgot the mayor of Toronto smoking a crack pipe.
You’re right, I did, but he’s such an easy target. No offense to the people of Toronto, but it’s hard to believe such a buffoon was voted in.
“Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” (Henry Kissinger)
Blaze,
Many over at IBS are quite impressed with US Republican Congressman Mike Kelly who represents Erie, New Castle, and Butler Pennsylvania. Some were looking to try to contact him. I mentioned that I seemed to remember despite the fact you were no longer a US citizen that you were from this part of the United States originally.
http://isaacbrocksociety.ca/2013/05/19/mike-kelly-explains-why-investigation-into-irs-just-beginning/
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=D2_CyUkjQn4
Why would anyone be impressed with Mike Kelly? If they watched the video it was easy to see the man was grandstanding and not the least bit interested in answers. He was a buffoon. The Republicans will say or do anything to embarrass Pres. Obama. They refuse to admit they lost the election.
@cornwalliscal,
Not impressed with his bullying type rant, but perhaps he is another Congressman who will see that the same IRS overreach happens for the US Person Abroad. I sent him a message in a round-about way, which indeed may never reach him.
@Cornwalliscal: Much of what Mike Kelly has said on Fox News could also be applied to FATCA. (Again an example of how bizarre my world has become–now I’m watching and quoting a Fox News video!)
http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=erp16tHLO1c
Kelly called the current IRS situation an “overreach” and an “outrage.” He said “there’s something wrong when we’ve given this much power to these few people to run our lives the way they’re running our lives.”
This is what he had to say on Twitter:
“Americans are absolutely right to be outraged by #IRS’s despicable abuse of power…”
Sound familiar? That’s exactly what US is trying to do to people, banks, businesses and governments around the world with FATCA.
Kelly may be a buffoon, but no more than most of the other buffoons supporting FATCA like Casey (also from Pennsylvania), Schumer, Levin and Baucus–all Democrats. (For the record, I grew up in a family of Democrats and many people consider me leftist, which makes my recent quoting of Republicans, Fox News and most of all Rand Paul definitely weird!. A friend literally fell off her chair laughing last year when I told her Jim Flaherty was my new hero).
I think Henry Kissinger summed it up well in the quote I posted above “Ninety percent of the politicians give the other ten percent a bad reputation.” He worked for Nixon, so he should know.
@Tim: I sent a couple of tweets to Mike Kelly. I have located his office address in Erie. Nice digs. Not far from where my sister works.
To contact him via e-mail, you have to give a zip code in the congressional district “to verify residency.” I could probably use my sister’s or my mother’s, but I won’t because I don’t want to do anything to give anyone the impression I might be a “US person” by trying to “verify” a Pennsylvania address where I haven’t lived for 45 years!
I may be in Pennsylvania later this summer. I will think about whether it might be worth contacting him while I am there. For now, I prefer to concentrate my efforts on the rights of Canadians in Canada.
With that said, I’m now going to focus on enjoying the rest of this glorious holiday Monday.
Happy Victoria Day, everyone!
“Fans” of Mike Duffy may enjoy Rex Murphy’s comments on the housing scandal and the $90K cheque, here
http://www.cbc.ca/thenational/indepthanalysis/rexmurphy/story/2013/05/16/thenational-rexmurphy-051613.html
My favourite line by Rex refers to Duffy’s claim that the Senate rules governing what is and is not a principal residence were confusing — Rex’s comment was “how hard is it to answer the question, ‘where do you live’?” followed by a photograph in the background of a cat, with the further words “this cat knows where he lives and how to get there” thereby raising some disturbing comparisons of the relative intelligence of Duffy and the cat … And Duffy is Harper’s idea of what the Senate, our “upper house” of “sober second thought,” needs for “good government …”
Last week’s At Issue Panel on CBC had some extensive comments on how much damage this scandal should and (one hopes) will do to Harper and his government, noting that the people most upset about this are probably the up-until-now supporters of Harper and crowd, who are (if they have any sense of honour and propriety) utterly mortified that the party they’ve been supporting is stooping to this sort of thing.
More disturbing IMO was the headline story in the Toronto Star on the weekend about how the trade deals being negotiated with the EU and with China can potentially affect local employment, cost of medication, etc. and are being held behind closed doors; persons and organizations being “allowed” to consult on the negotiations are required to sign a draconian non-disclosure agreement. So much for accountability and transparency, the tag lines Harper used when he defeated Martin and the Liberals …
Sadly, the US does not have a monopoly on stupid, venal, nasty and profoundly undemocratic elected politicians.
Now, we can add CRA employees to the growing list of corrupt public servants. Two former CRA employees have been charged in a fraud and bribery scheme.
It seems it’s not just the IRS with scandal on it’s hands.
http://www.edmontonjournal.com/news/Charges+laid+against+three+Canada+Revenue+Agency+fraud/8425152/story.html
Here’s two more politicians giving the other 10% a bad reputation.
Perhaps most concerning is the fact one of these two MPs owing taxes in Quebec is Hoang Mai. Mr. Mai is a lawyer who was outspoken against FATCA when he was Revenue Critic for the NDP. He has been removed from that position and is now Deputy Justice Critic.
http://www.cbc.ca/news/politics/story/2013/05/24/pol-tyrone-benskin-taxes.html
Plus, in the US, a bipartisan bill has been introduced to make federal government employees their tax debts. As Just Me said on Twitter: #IRS needs a bill to do this?
http://www.accountingtoday.com/news/Senators-Introduce-Bill-Requiring-Federal-Employees-Pay-Tax-Debts-66849-1.html#read
What happened to garnishment of wages? As a Human Resources Manager, the courts required me to do this many times for employees who weren’t paying child support, debts,etc. Why not for back taxes–just like employers make currrent tax deductions from pay? There should be no reason why the federal government cannot do this for taxes owed by their own employees.
Has the world gone mad?!?
Yes, it has.