Another Democrat, Another Tax Scandal

Scandal-plagued Cook County (Chicago) Board Chairman Todd Stroger, whom Barack Obama endorsed, has joined an esteemed group of fellow Democrats. Move over, Tim Geithner, Tom Daschle, Nancy Killefer, Charles Rangel, Kathleen Sebelius, and Hilda Solis: There's a new tax cheat making headlines!

According to the Chicago Sun-Times, Stroger owes the IRS nearly $12,000 in unpaid taxes. This development is especially delicious considering Stoger's decision earlier this week to block a measure aimed at relieving Chicagoans' tax burden. He vetoed a rollback of an unpopular sales tax hike that pushed the Cook County rate to 10.25 percent, the highest in the nation. His veto flies in the face of a 12-3 County Board vote earlier this month to repeal the rate increase.

As he takes political heat for blocking a push to lower county sales taxes, Cook County Board President Todd Stroger is in hot water for a more personal tax issue:

He owes Uncle Sam nearly $12,000 for unpaid income taxes, recently filed records show.

The Internal Revenue Service slapped a $11,668.10 lien on Stroger and his wife earlier this year. The Strogers have yet to fully pay that debt, meaning the federal government could hold up a sale of the Strogers' house or other property if payment terms aren't reached.

Good thing he isn't playing the race card, though. Oh wait:

Once again, implying that his foes are racially motivated, Stroger on Monday spoke only to black-oriented talk WVON radio.

To recap, Chicagoans will continue to suffer under oppressive rates imposed by a man who doesn't pay his own taxes, and who eagerly blames his mess on racism. Delightful.

So sorry, Dodger, just because someone doesn't pay their taxes on time, doesn't make them a tax cheat. But NRO will spin this story to their liking.

Impeach Obama.

lol rotf

That Son-of-a-Bitch!

And here I thought he was the G D Messiah!

You've convinced me Dodger.

Bring back the War Criminals.

$12,000???!!!!

Stroger is making George W Bush's friend Kenneth Lay look like a boy scout!

CJ: Impeach Obama.

The BEST post I've EVER seen in my time on this board!!!

"CJ: Impeach Obama.

The BEST post I've EVER seen in my time on this board!!!"

EXACTLY!

Like I said;
"Bring back the War Criminals"

Yeah, as Sen. Sheldon Whitehouse said Cheney is looking more and more like a defendant.

Notice how the liberals begin the process of shifting the attention away from Obama. Pitiful.

The attention was never there to begin with. It's pitiful that conservatives place blame where there is none. Was Bush guilty because he was friends with Jack Abramoff?

The fact remains : " To many changes , to God damned fast ". That is what we have NOW. We have a President and Congres that seem hell bent on just making too many drastic changes. It is upsetting the natural scheme of things in so many areas, business models , private sector and otherwise.

I have a daughter who just graduated from Nursing School, BSN , Washington State U and she has a previous degree in Biology from U.W. Just 1 or 2 years ago there were Nursing Jobs, entry level for Graduates that they couldnt fill in many cases due to a lack of trained personell. This has been the case in this industry for many years now.

Well, now we have the Healthcare industry in an at least a temporary ' Vapor Lock ' and one of the areas is hiring new or replacing existing Nursing positions. My kid has been on quite a few interviews or Job Search apps eventhough she is just now graduating and will take the board exam in a couple of months. Most of the HR depts are telling her that its a flooded market for at least right now, because Health provider Administrators arent sure what the President and Congress are going to do exactly with this healthcare issue of " cutting health care costs ".

We have a President now who seem to think he is the CEO of the entire friggin' country's Private Sector.

"The fact remains : " To(o) many changes , to(o) God damned fast ".

This is true.
Afterall, it took Conservatives some 30 years to fuck things up this badly.

Kennewickman: We have a President now who seem to think he is the CEO of the entire friggin' country's Private Sector.

You completely misunderstand the guy or purposely overstate it. He wants nothing to do with the private sector, other than some required regulation and some recent bailouts that seem essential. He has said as much.

The health care industry is different. For too long many of us have felt the government needed a larger role in health care, as health care costs have continued to soar out of control. It shouldn't surprise anyone that Obama or any Democrat elected in 2008 would be going down the road of real health care reform to try to reduce its costs - and yes, that probably does mean a lot more government intervention. Too bad the health care industry has been so incredibly greedy the last several decades. Oh, well, no tears from me.

Ya, and it will take the liberals all that much sooner to screw it up even worse.

And no tears from you until you need it ! Then when there is a shortage of qualified Health Care workers, who make the difference in most cases, watch the nashing of teeth , screaming and bitching and BY GOD im gonnah sue that hospital etc etc...

I don't get that defeatest attitude.

Ok, so we are hosed. It's safe to say everybody buys that.

So then, what exactly would the conservative fix be? Other fix?

And let's hear the timeline for that too.

We are living with the result of a 30 year Republican driven gaffe. Clinton tossed his bit in too, so let's be fair.

Boils down to supply siders. Most everybody bought in after Reagan. The only reason ordinary people didn't get pissed off sooner, is it took 30 years to hose enough of them to reach critical mass. (or so, maybe 25 because change started really manifesting about then)

Industry by industry the game was the same. Remove regulation, relax enforcement of financial and anti-trust legislation we built up from the last time we did this, consolidate, export work to the lowest bidder, drive wages down, profit!

Manufacturing, high-tech, medical, automotive (recently, and that one was done with an interesting mix of bringing in lower cost, higher tech competition here!!), information technology, construction, textiles, you name it.

Stir in a big war, multi-nationals avoiding their share of the American system, massive debt, and a GDP that consists of about 70 percent funny money propped up by derivative financials, instead of the 70 percent real labor based value it used to have.

I hear this "Liberals will screw it up further" shit all the time. Ok smart guys, what would you do?

We are pretty screwed up, and it's gonna take some time, pain and anguish to right things.

I know what I would do, and have posted it up here, and a lot of people agree. In fact, the only people that don't agree are die-hard supply siders, tax obsessed, and 23 percenters who value their issue over the health of the nation.

We need to build things. Anything really. Just start doing it, work hard to innovate around it, and don't freaking export it. I would do that with huge SMALL BUSINESS incentives, so that we are eating more of our own dog food as quickly as we can do so.

Only then will the bleeding stop.

The quickest way there is progressive policy, just like we did last time. The form of it maybe looks different today, but the essence of it won't. We either work our asses off, or we continue to slide deeper into lower class status as a nation.

Wall street DOES NOT MAKE ANYTHING. Insurers DO NOT ADD VALUE. Those jobs are a net loss for us. Those profits are funny money and do not get us any real progress.

The only thing that will is either a big ass war, so we can erase the debt forcefully, or we double down on simple innovation applied to labor over time for value.

What's your plan? And please do support it with simple, basic information that lends credence to your idea, just like I and many others do regularly.

Rather than entertain a lot of partisan bitching about this and that, step away from the TV, go do some reading and think it through. Do this so you know better what you want and why, then start hammering others and your politicians about it.

That is how the system works. We need you.

Oh, and health care is dead simple.

Extend medicare to everyone that wants it. Set a policy premium that corrects the payout reductions and eliminate the part d cluster fuck. That's a simple, achievable single pay system that would easily compete with any others in the world.

Tons of people will jump on, health care providers will gladly start staffing up to address the need, and private insurers can either figure out how to actually add value, or go away and insure something else.

Maybe then those people coming out of school will see some serious employment options. Bitch ain't it? Welcome to the club. Just about every other industry sees the same problem, and it's linked directly to multi-nationals exploiting the hell out of us.

That has got to stop.

Oh, and the moment that happens, tons of Americans become mobile too. De-couple insurance from your employer and we get lots of people able to take risks and go and do stuff. Small business will bloom in the lower risk environment, and that means jobs and dollars for more people.

Kennewickman: Ya, and it will take the liberals all that much sooner to screw it up even worse. And no tears from you until you need it !

My brother had a recent unfortunate experience. He was getting insurance through a small business he was working for, but the employer missed the payments so his coverage was dropped. He was supposed to get it back a few weeks later...but in between he got an acute attack of diverticulitis. He was in such extreme pain that he had to go the emergency room...and stay in for five days. (He didn't have surgery, just had to rest and be monitored.)

He's fine now, except for the heart attack when he got the bill: $90,000.

This kind of nonsense goes on all the time and it's getting worse every year. Those of you who think the government shouldn't get involved - what exactly do you think should be done about skyrocketing health care costs? The health care industry has no incentive to fix the problem or they would have already. Too many people are getting rich off of people like my brother - what's their incentive?

You too may see the light someday when, even if you have insurance, you wind up with a huge medical bill you didn't expect. Medical bills are the #1 reason for bankruptcy in America today.

(raises hand!)

diverticulitis is what hammered Mrs KSKD. First visit = 60K, no insurance. Fully addressing the problem exceeded 100K, had some insurance on that.

No longer self-employed over that mess, no longer a home owner because of that mess.

Now helping somebody else to retire nicely and put their kids through school. I was doing great too! Would have hired a person or two in a year, opened a small office and been off to the races.

Oh well. That can still happen someday. Let's let LIBERALS push some progressive policy in our best interests and there is time yet to leverage it. I might retire nicely after all!

And Andrew has it spot on too. Insurers are rolling back their coverage every few months, while adding to their premiums. I suspect the larger number of unemployed people is reducing their profit, and lord knows that 20 percent must be protected at all costs, or wall street will devalue them to be consumed by somebody else brutal enough to deliver.

Beautiful system we have isn't it?

I'm having fun. Trust me

My friends in the UK asked why I just didn't up and move! My roots are here, and I like being an American. Have to admit it was tempting though. We've Scotts, Irish, Germans in the family.

When bad stuff happens to them, they don't end up hammered totally into the ground, lucky to eat.

Why not hammer this home?

And this is my third career! Other two were outsourced. What a bitch. If things don't pick up, I'm gonna have to sort out a fourth too.

How many people have done that dance? Gets old doesn't it? Build up skills, nail it, best in class, only to see it move to some other nation, so we get to do it again and again.

Like I said, I'm having fun, are you?

(and I've never collected unemployment a day in my life --doing the work is easy. I just would appreciate being able to keep a nicer share of the spoils.)

What's that grand conservative plan again? I'm all ears!

I agree , health care costs are totaly out of control !

My daughter ( the same one who is the nurse now ) has a condition that requires an injected drug once every 7 weeks. She has been on this for about 4 years now. The gross cost of it before discounts etc is 7200 per injection, do the math on that for a year.

My insurance still covers her as a dependent. Our copays are not a lot for this, about 500 /year very reasonable. But she / I am lucky. I have good insurance and a good employer plan. When she turns 25 next month I am exending her on COBRA and that goes only for a maximum of 3 years with other restrictions of course. The cost for COBRA is out of my pocket as a payroll deduction and it is not too bad , espeically if I only have to carry her until she finds a position with reasonable medical benefit. Reasonable being a key concept here.

You see, what I am complaining about is a change that is too fast ! The ramifications are faster I think because of the reaction of the medical industry and or the insurance companies reaction to all this quick fix stuff in DC.

The other aspect of this, is this so called agreement in DC from the Healthcare gurus to Obama et al, to save 2 trillion over 10 years. There was no outline for any of these savings as far as anyone knows yet BTW.

So , speaking of a grand conservative plan, there doesnt seem to be any grand Liberal plan either ! Just a lick and a promise and some kind of 'lock up' or ad hoc hiring freeze on healthcare workers amongst other issues ?? Its like another market reaction that affects the unemployment numbers but in a different way .

"You completely misunderstand the guy or purposely overstate it. "

Anderew, I know for a fact you're far to intelligent to believe that.

"Those of you who think the government shouldn't get involved - what exactly do you think should be done about skyrocketing health care costs? The health care industry has no incentive to fix the problem or they would have already."

The answer, IMHO, is not single-payer, government-run health care for all. No thank you, we have that system in place, it's called the VA, and we see how "wonderful" that works for so many vets!

Government needs to get involved, and do something about the INSURANCE industry. One of the most egregious acts of the Bush administration is how it got in bed with the insurance industry, seemingly further DEregulating it, insisting that no Canadian or outside pharmaceuticals are to be dispensed, nothing to save Americans money. The current system is a sham, and we have enabled it for way too long.

I do agree with Obama on the principle of providing health care to ALL Americans, but letting those currently with coverage keep it, and not forcing everyone on single-payer, government-run health care. Give a CHOICE to those who are allotted that, and for the 50 some odd million who have none, provide it in some capacity. Monies can be raised by possibly taking some of the massive profits that the medical insurance industry is collecting, allowing non-name brand perscription drugs into the system, there are ways to think outside the box and provide that.

Well, how about single payer option? Heck, that's all I want.

Let them put out a nice, competitive base line coverage and check the insurance companies nicely?

Offer Medicare for a reasonable premium and call it good. If that beats your coverage / dollar, jump on. If it does not, then don't.

The rest will get sorted very quickly.

Option is great, Missing. To put in a no-option system is NOT.

I don't think anybody is seriously talking about a no-option system. It's best to just setup the baseline expectations and let private companies either add value to that, or go and do something else.

And then there are the Pharmeceutical companies.

Pet peeve of mine. My brother and I got into this discussion. He is a graduate Microbiologist. He claims the pharm companies need all that money because it takes so many millions of dollars to develop and test and meet FDA approval on a new drug etc. Bushwah I say ! Somebody is making too much money here.

Look into the patent laws regarding how long a pharm company gets to have exclusive rights to a drug before it becomes generic. There are international laws then there are US laws. One reason the rest of the world gets cheaper drugs is because international laws are more lax about developing generic knock offs to a new drug than here in the US. That is why Bush pushed the protectionism so hard. Essentially WE pay for the exclusivity of name brand drugs for the rest of the Planet. We cant get a generic made in Mexico or Europe, at least not easily. I knew a guy who lived in Arizona most of the time and spent a good deal of his retirement going to Mexico to buy pharm' and over the counter drugs right out in the open for the rest of his family living in the Portland area. Saved them a boat load of money in several cases.

Nice huh ! That is one of the major travesites of the US healtcare system, WE PAY for the drugs to be exclusive for longer, the rest of the world doesnt so much. It has been this way for 50 years or more !

So here IS a change I am LOOKING forward to.

Here is a way to save BOATLOADS of money under the Obama plan

Brianl: The answer, IMHO, is not single-payer, government-run health care for all. No thank you, we have that system in place, it's called the VA, and we see how "wonderful" that works for so many vets!

Actually, Brian, single payer is nothing at all like the VA, which is what is truly called "socialized medicine" (doctors work for the government, hospitals owned by gov, etc.). This is what the British have. And NO ONE in the US is seriously proposing socialized medicine!!!

What is known as "single payer" is basically Medicare: the government is the insurance company; the doctors and hospitals are privately owned as now. I personally think Medicare works quite well and think insurance companies add nothing to the consumer.

A lot of liberals (e.g. Dennis Kucinich) are strongly in favor of single payer - and I see a lot of merits in it. But none of the serious US Democrats running for president in 2008 (Obama or Clinton) were proposing single payer - even Clinton wasn't with her proposal for universal health care. Obama's proposal was to offer the same plan available to members of Congress to the general public, along with some subsidies to make health care more affordable and government investment in preventive care.

Hey Dodger, what if the guy doesn't have the money to pay? Could you yourself come up with $12K cash to pay a debt in full by Monday? Do we even know his situation? I don't know if I'd classify him as a cheater if we don't know the circumstance.

Cheaters file false returns, this guy may have filed a proper return and simply can't pay the debt.

And to tie him to Obama, how pathetic! I guess this is proof you really have nothing of substance to talk about. Maybe you should stick to the radio side and talk about your reduction in pay.

Notice how the liberals begin the process of shifting the attention away from Obama. Pitiful.



Just like you did for 8 years! Whenever someone would bring up ol'DUHbya and the DICKster and the absolute HORRIFIC shit they were doing you would bring out Clinton or the fact that DUHbya is freeing 600 ZILLION Iraqis from an evil DICKtator.
Pitiful!
What about the THOUSANDS that were killed? Bring those facts out.... Didn't think so....
Pitiful!

He is a graduate Microbiologist. He claims the pharm companies need all that money because it takes so many millions of dollars to develop and test and meet FDA approval on a new drug etc. Bushwah I say ! Somebody is making too much money here.

I don't know, I think many (most?) "promising" drugs just don't pan out. I think they are doing a bit of gambling and I'd hate to sifle the opportunity to discover new drugs by adding more "budget experts" into the mix.

Having said that, perhaps appointed watchdogs can monitor things.