Always the Same Hatred

In re: Gary Horton, “Congressman Garcia Slips Us a Mickey,” commentary, Jan. 18.

Any Democrat, Republican or independent who has ever taken the time to listen to Rep. Mike Garcia speak about his undying love for our country and the men and women in uniform would never for a second believe he would EVER use those men and women he loves and willingly risked his life for to further some hidden political agenda of his. Utterly and absolutely ridiculous on its face, not to mention extremely petty and offensive. But what else should we expect from Mr. Horton, as this is his preferred style.

Mr. Horton is a very successful businessman who to the best of my knowledge has never taken the time to actually meet and speak with Rep. Garcia to voice his opinions. Speaking for myself, if I had such a deep and visceral dislike of someone I had never met, I think I would at least take the time to actually meet them face to face to see if I was correct in my assumptions of them.

Now for the obvious fact: Extremely wealthy people are not who the IRS goes after now or would go after should they get that $80 billion more in funding over the next few years. The IRS has always and will always go after the “low-hanging fruit” that doesn’t have the money or resources to fight them and will normally agree to pay what the IRS says they owe.

And even Mr. Horton didn’t claim these ultrawealthy people actually even owe any taxes — and he certainly didn’t bother mentioning what it would cost the taxpayers to file cases that would quite probably drag on for years, since these ultra-wealthy people have a whole bunch of very talented tax attorneys who eat IRS agents for breakfast — I believe the old saying of stepping on dollars while grabbing for pennies is what we would see.

Rick Barker Valencia