John McCain

Nice strawman, Anjin.

You don't know what a strawman is, do you?

I finally watched the piece and think that Obama handled it quite well and in a way that will appeal to more people than it will anger. Many on the right on latching onto him saying something like, we've got to spread the wealth around. Pulling this out of context for political advantage is to be expected, but should not be taken seriously. Listen to the whole thing and if you disagree (and many here will) then argue against his actual argument. Anything else is just freelance hackery or worse.

Not necessarily-depends a lot on why he owes them. Owing back taxes doesn't always mean a person criminally evaded them-sometimes you just screw up something in your filing, and it is especially easy to do if you work for yourself or do side work.

Or even have a tough year financially. If he were a CEO of a large financial institution sam would be all too willing to bail him out.

I don't know the specifics of Joe Wurzelbacher's finances and don't particularly care. They strike me as beside the point to the issue of taxes and policy.

Charles, it doesn't strike you as the slightest bit, oh, I don't know, unseemly, maybe, that someone held up as an icon on the anti-tax front owes back taxes?

Not necessarily-depends a lot on why he owes them. Owing back taxes doesn't always mean a person criminally evaded them-sometimes you just screw up something in your filing, and it is especially easy to do if you work for yourself or do side work.

now his minions are out there attacking the average Joe who doesn't want his taxes raised.

Obama is about as responsible for this as McCain is for "kill him!" and "sit down boy."

Also Sam, I cannot help the fact that you find the Toledo Blade a more authoritative source for professional licensing requirements in the state of Ohio than the Ohio Administrative Code itself.

A lawyer you are not. Google "local government authority" and see if that helps.

I understand why income is taxed thought because it's the easiest thing to tax and not have collection nightmares like you would have with a national sales tax (the newly minted underground economy would be a hoot).

Don't forget, too, that sales tax is already the biggest source of funding for most state governments. If the US government suddenly switched over to a massive, nation-wide sales tax, then odds are the state governments would turn around and do an income tax.

Oh, and just curious Sam, but should anyone who owes back taxes be prohibited from expressing an opinion or even holding office?

The answer is no they should not.

Actually, it strikes me as amazingly consistent that someone who owes back taxes would object to higher taxes.

Me too, that was my point.

But I did notice that you have studiously avoided answering my question.