Bloodthirsty Liberal

Underpaying taxes and screwing it, screwing it.

I just wish I had written this dialogue:

In an amazing news coincidence, on the very same day as the US Air Flight 1549 emergency radio tapes were released, The Ticket has exclusively obtained the tapes of recent emergency radio conversations between ground traffic controllers with the Obama administration’s White House and Rep. Hilda Solis.

…

The dramatic tape excerpts tell a compelling story of confused but calm determination and political professionalism during the sudden tax emergency and unexpected descent this week. Here are the exchanges between Solis and the White House:

HS: We had a problem on takeoff. Flew into a flock of liens.

WH: Of what?

HS: Liens. Tax liens. My husband has more than 6,000 in unpaid business taxes.

WH: That’s a lot of faxes!

HS: No, not faxes. Taxes. You know, like money. That regular people pay to government.

WH: We’ve heard of that.

HS: It was an accident. An unintentional oversight.

WH: We’ve heard of that too.

HS: For about 16 years.

WH: Oh.

HS: Yes.

WH: How long have you been in public office?

HS: For about 16 years.

WH: Oh.

HS: What should we do?

WH: Well, you could pay the taxes.

HS: OK. OK. Hadn’t thought of that. I suppose we could.

But won’t it look funny to not pay 15 tax liens over 16 years? And then suddenly the day before the committee’s scheduled vote we pay them? What if USA Today goes poking around?

WH: They wouldn’t do that. The newspapers are all wrapped up in Sunday’s Pro Bowl.

HS: OK, we’ll pay the taxes Wednesday and say we’re gonna appeal them.

WH: Good. Then Thursday we’ll have the press secretary say that your own taxes are just fine. They are, aren’t they? And no decent American would want to penalize a hard-working wife for her husband’s mistakes. It worked for what’s-her-name up in New York.

HS: But I’m worried about Thursday’s vote.

WH: We’ll get the unions to turn up the heat on committee members. We’ve got the majority. We’ll be fine.

HS: OK, good.

WH: We’ll be OK as long as there’s no last-minute postponement of the vote.

HS: What about a boat?

WH: You’ll need one if you go in the river.

–Andrew Malcolm

To give him credit—this is wittier than anything SNL has done in more years than I can remember.

And prescient:

In the coming days, EMILY’s List will mobilize its members with an online petition calling on the Republicans in the Senate to act on Solis’ confirmation as President Obama’s Secretary of Labor.

…

The National Women’s Political Caucus urges the Members of the Senate Committee on Health, Education, Labor and Pensions to vote for the confirmation of Congresswoman Hilda Solis to serve as Secretary of Labor.

As Geithner goes, so goes Solis.

Why not let her in? After all, it’s not like the Labor Secretary actually does anything—which is pretty ironic when you think about it.