Robert Hanson's (mostly) tech log.

Political Polls (file under "BS")

I received this poll in an email from my congressman Leonard Lance.

Dear Friend,

As you may know recent newspapers reported that according to the Internal Revenue Service (IRS) more than 97,000 federal employees were delinquent on their 2008 federal income taxes, owing almost $1 billion in unpaid taxes.

While all Americans have an obligation to pay the taxes they owe, because federal employees draw their compensation from the American taxpayers, they are especially obliged to pay their share of taxes.

To this end, I recently voted in favor of legislation authored by my fellow colleague Rep. Jason Chaffetz (R-UT) which would require the collection of unpaid taxes from federal employees, saving taxpayers up to $1 billion.

Yet despite my vote in the affirmative, this bill failed 186 to 226.

What Do You Think?

Should Congress require the collection of unpaid taxes from federal employees?

The poll as three options, Yes, No, and I don't know. The obvious choice is "Yes", of course I want Congress to require the collection of taxes. But on the other hand, don't we already have laws in place for this?

What Mr. Lance doesn't provide is enough information to make an informed decision, and then he words the question where the only real choice is to agree with him. You do want taxes to be collected, don't you?

The question he should be asking is, do you agree with H.R. 4735, in that federal employees with SERIOUSLY DELINQUENT TAX DEBT should not be allowed federal employment?

But that begs the question, why do these 97,000 federal employees have "seriously delinquent" tax debt? Is it because of the bad economy? Is it because due to their circumstances that they just couldn't possibly pay it? And if they couldn't possibly pay off their debt, what good is it to put 97,000 employees out of work?

Regardless of what your opinion on this bill is, the fact is that politicians like Mr. Lance like to word polls in such a way that you have to agree with them. They hide the details, and if you have a full time job like I do, you don't have time to know all of the details. On top of that the pools stink of a bad marketing ploy, focusing more on how Leonard Lance voted for the proposal, than what the bill was about.

So to Leonard Lance and other like him, if you want my opinion I will gladly share it. But don't tell me how great you are. Instead give me the facts, and at the very least give me a link to the bill in question so that I can read it!

Labels: politics

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