Yes, like every other employer in the country, the government withholds payroll taxes from its public employees that it is obligated to turn over to the Caja. It is also obligated to pay its employer portion of the Caja tax.

But the government doesn’t pay these taxes owed to the Caja. Instead, it pockets the payroll taxes it withholds from employees and doesn’t pay its portion of the tax either.

When private employers do this, which unfortunately many do, sooner or later the tax collectors come out and shut down the businesses pending payment of the taxes owed. However, when the government itself does this, which it does consistently, no tax collectors come out to shut it down pending payment of the taxes owed.

This is incredible mismanagement, even criminal mismanagement, by the government itself.

So next time you grumble over your Caja tax or, worse, over the long waits and lousy treatment in the Caja, don’t point your finger at the Caja. Point it at the government which is stealing money from the Caja.

I hate strikes by healthcare workers, but by God someone needs to hold the criminally mismanaged government responsible for the plight of the Caja.

Forget foreign debt. The first debt the government owes is to its own sick citizens, from whom it is now stealing money.