Death and Taxes

A friend of mine posted the following on her Facebook wall:

Each time the USA Olympians win a medal of any level - I hear "$$Cha Ching $$" Thank you, Democrats for taxing those who worked hard and sacrificed their lives and all of their financial abilites to achieve their goals. Taxing medals...yet one more example of ridiculousness. REMOVE NANCY PELOSI ...she supports it.

As expected, there was a flurry of anti-tax and anti-democrat sentiment.  But I had a different take on it.

I'm sorry, I can't work up any outrage on this.  They are competing in events they are passionate about.  As a Chess player, I know that any Chess tournaments or matches I compete in, the winnings, if there are any, are subject to taxation. As a writer, sales of anything I get published are subject to taxation. I don't see why this is a big deal.  This is pretty much how they make their living, so why shouldn't it be taxed, just like the rest of us plumbers, doctors, teachers etc.  There are two things that are inevitable, right? Death and taxes, so it can't get worked up over this.   

But your post made me think, did Obama get taxed for his Nobel Peace prize?  I looked it up.  Turns out that Nobel prize winners are taxed, just like Olympic medalists.  Here's an article I found from Forbes: http://www.forbes.com/sites/robertwood/2010/10/14/irs-is-taxing-my-nobel-prize/ 

"Most of us will never win a Nobel Prize, but if we do, it comes with a tax bill.  Our old friend the IRS gets a cut of the roughly $1.4 million USD ($10 million Swedish kronor) cash prize.  The 2010 winners may not be complaining, but some may be surprised.  See Life After Winning a Nobel Prize.  Martin Chalfie, won the 2008 Nobel Prize in Chemistry, lamenting that since the Reagan era when the tax code was changed, the IRS collects tax on prizes just like any other income.  
President Obama cleverly avoided tax on his Nobel Peace Prize last year—and got great press—by regifting it."

But note that the article shows that the people responsible for this state of affairs is not the Democrats. The change to the tax code happened in 1986 under the REAGAN administration.  Even so, I can't get worked up over this.  You are laying the blame at the feet of the Democrats and Pelosi, when this is clearly something that was been in effect for decades and was implemented by the Patron Saint of Conservatives, Ronald Reagan.  I hate throwing the cold water of fact on hot flames of emotional rhetoric, but I think this is overblown.

I'm curious to see how others will repsond.