Recently, I asked Congressman Mike Michaud to send me copies of two bills so I could read them. One does away with the IRS and income taxes and replaces it with the fair tax; the other eliminates the taxes on Social Security checks to help senior citizens.

I received a letter in return, stating that enclosed were copies of the bills I had requested, but the only thing in the envelope was a letter describing another bill that Michaud voted against.

That bill would bar individuals with delinquent tax debt from federal employment, make a federal employee’s tax debt grounds for dismissal, and that every federal agency would verify that future applicants didn’t have serious delinquent tax debt. Currently, federal workers are some $3 billion behind in their taxes.

Michaud got a report from the Treasury Department that 1,146 of those tax cheats were IRS employees and that some of them received pay raises; the rest got time off with pay as punishment.

On April 15, 2013, the day income taxes are due, he voted no because, he stated, tax delinquency is not grounds for firing in other sectors; that wages could be garnished (I don’t think that is being done); and Michaud was worried about hiring the best and brightest state and federal employees in the future.

I don’t believe we have the best if they have stolen that much money from taxpayers. In fact, they make Al Capone, who went to jail for tax evasion, look like a skinflint by comparison.

Eddie Shurtleff, Rumford