About Those Taxes is an essay by Michel Martin on a program called Tell Me More we're now getting on KERA-FM out of Dallas. You can listen to it or read it at the link. It starts:

A few years ago, a friend of mine went to work in the Clinton White House. It wasn't one of the big-name jobs, but it was a big deal to him. He was a not-very-well-off kid raised by a hard-working single mom. He had gotten a good education on scholarships and dreamed of doing something to give back, to make life better for kids and for families like the one he'd grown up in. He saw the job as a way he could do his bit and, sure, see a bit of the glamorous side of Washington.

The problem was his friends, one in particular whom I also knew, who had no idea why his old buddy was no longer so available for impromptu barbecues and golf games and long chinwags on the phone. The old friend had never held a high-pressure job, certainly not in the White House.

"He can't be that busy," he would grumble.

Well, actually, I tried to explain, he is that busy. I had covered the previous administration, so I knew a bit about the job our mutual friend was doing, and I knew about the days that started as the sun was coming up, the 200 phone messages he would have gotten by lunchtime and the phone calls to friends and family that would end with a "gotta go" instead of a "goodbye" when his boss walked into the room.

I have been thinking about this as I have been thinking about the last couple of weeks' arguments over executive pay and the tax foibles that have undone the president's nominees.

[snip]

SRS