WASHINGTON — Talk about biting the hand that feeds you!
Nearly 300,000 federal workers dodge federal income taxes and have shortchanged the government more than $3 billion in 2009 alone, the IRS reports.
Sens. Tom Coburn (R-Okla.) and Claire McCaskill (D-Mo.) have a simple solution: pay up or get sacked. The bipartisan duo introduced a bill yesterday that would require all federal employees to be current on their federal income taxes or get fired.
They called it a “common sense bill” with which they say most Americans will agree.
They also said it is surprising that the pay-to-stay tax policy was not already standard practice throughout the government.
“While millions of Americans continue to send back portions of their hard-earned wages to Washington, many federal employees are failing to contribute their share,” Coburn’s office said.
Coburn and McCaskill estimated the legislation would save taxpayers about $3 billion, and they said the legislation carefully reaches only federal workers who have willfully neglected to pay their income taxes.