January 19, 2007 11:09AM 

# Irony, in the Alanis Morissette Sense 

By [Jim Harper](https://www.cato.org/people/jim-harper) 

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Here’s a nice book-end to Chris Edwards’ [recent post](https://www.cato.org/2006/08/02/new-milestone-for-federal-pay/) — and the flurry of controversy — about federal compensation reaching precisely **double** the national average:

[Tax Prof Blog](http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/01/federal_employe.html) (via [Volokh](http://volokh.com/posts/1169223450.shtml)) notes that federal employees owe $2.8 billion in taxes. Tax Prof [lists and compares](http://taxprof.typepad.com/taxprof_blog/2007/01/federal_employe.html) the “scofflaw” rates of different agencies and departments, with the U.S. Commission on Civil Rights coming in just shy of 10 percent.

##### Related Tags 

[Government and Politics](https://www.cato.org/government-politics), [Tax and Budget Policy](https://www.cato.org/tax-budget-policy) 

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