THE WEEK

If you happen to live in Eastern Missouri, and you happen to have a question about your income tax; and you happen to phone the St. Louis Internal Revenue Office; and the secretary who answers happens to repeat your name correctly with a rising inflection on the last syllable—well, then you are a Very Important Person, Eastern Missouri style. Yes, the secretaries in the St. Louis Internal Revenue Office have just completed a course in tax-collecting etiquette and that’s the way they’ve been told to address VIP’s. We suppose you might call this courteous approach to taxation “subtracting insult from injury.”

The Budget Merry-Go-Round (An Old Farce in Many Scenes): Synopsis. Congress to President: “Your budget is too high!” President to Congress: “Agreed. Go ahead and cut it.” Congress to President: “Fine. We’ll cut x millions from Commerce, y millions from Interior, z millions from foreign aid, and…” President’s Cabinet to Congress: “Stop at once, you scoundrels! What are you trying to do, ruin the country? If Post Office is cut a penny, we won’t deliver your mail. If you don’t give Interior every dollar it asks, we’ll close your parks. If Defense doesn’t get every nickel, we’ll disband your army. If you don’t dish out foreign aid, we’ll send you to Siberia… Now go back and vote like the obedient puppets Congressmen ought tobeina well-regulated Democracy.”

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If you happen to live in Eastern Missouri, and you happen to have a question about your income tax; and you happen to phone the St. Louis Internal Revenue Office; and the secretary who answers happens to repeat your name correctly with a rising inflection on the last syllable—well, then you are a Very Important Person, Eastern Missouri style. Yes, the secretaries in the St. Louis Internal Revenue Office have just completed a course in tax-collecting etiquette and that’s the way they’ve been told to address VIP’s. We suppose you might call this courteous approach to taxation “subtracting insult from injury.”

The Budget Merry-Go-Round (An Old Farce in Many Scenes): Synopsis. Congress to President: “Your budget is too high!” President to Congress: “Agreed. Go ahead and cut it.” Congress to President: “Fine. We’ll cut x millions from Commerce, y millions from Interior, z millions from foreign aid, and…” President’s Cabinet to Congress: “Stop at once, you scoundrels! What are you trying to do, ruin the country? If Post Office is cut a penny, we won’t deliver your mail. If you don’t give Interior every dollar it asks, we’ll close your parks. If Defense doesn’t get every nickel, we’ll disband your army. If you don’t dish out foreign aid, we’ll send you to Siberia… Now go back and vote like the obedient puppets Congressmen ought tobeina well-regulated Democracy.”