Auditory nerve

"Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius recently corrected three years of tax returns and paid more than $7000 in back taxes after finding 'unintentional errors.'" (Erica Werner, Huffington Post)

I know how President Obama plans to make up the enormous deficit he inherited from the Cheney-Bush regime. He will continue to appoint deadbeats to public office, and even if they withdraw their names like Tom Daschle, they will be encouraged to look over their financial records and write hasty checks to the Internal Revenue Service. There is probably an IRS auditor combing the returns for future nominees as I type.

It happens I have some experience of their methods. I owed a lot less than seven grand, and they promised to pursue me to the limits of the solar system. Of course, I've never been a senator or a governor, just a working stiff chosen at random. I paid. It's what we do, even without the promise of a presidential appointment. Avoiding prosecution is usually enough.

At the rate of a few thousand bucks a bureaucrat, of course, this is going to take time. The rest of us may wish to participate in a voluntary program proposed some years ago by Roy Blount, Jr.: Buy stamps and throw them away.

Think about it.