Does anyone in gov't pay their taxes??

Yet another Obama administration nominee has to clear up some overdue tax liabilities and issue the perfunctory mea culpa before assuming office:

Kansas Gov. Kathleen Sebelius on Tuesday joined a list of Cabinet nominees who were forced to pay back taxes because of errors in their returns.

In a letter to the Senate Finance Committee, Sebelius, President Barack Obama's nominee to head the Health and Human Services Department, said she repaid nearly $8,000, including interest, because of "unintentional errors.''

The list of nominees with tax trouble includes Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner and former Sen. Tom Daschle, who was Obama's first choice for HHS and withdrew after disclosing that he paid $140,000 in back taxes and interest.

Sebelius said in her letter that she found out about the errors when she hired a certified public accountant to scrub her tax returns from 2005 to 2007 after Obama nominated her.

It's pretty clear the Beltway Bandits play fast and loose with their tax liabilities until there's a chance to move up the ladder, with the attendant public scrutiny. But even if one is inclined to be charitable (I'm not) and say some of these are honest mistakes due to the complexity of the tax code, what does that say about that system? If the high rollers in government, with all their resources, can't untangle the mess, how are we little people supposed to?

The ONLY reason the tax code is so complex is that its primary purpose is no longer to raise revenue... it's to social engineer. Behavior and choices out of favor in Washington are taxed and penalized, and doggie biscuts are thrown to those who heel properly. This is not equal treatment under the law, by any stretch.

But then, that assumes the law reigns, and not men. That's not something we can easily assume anymore.