what, me be held liable for millions in back taxes?

The loudest voices on ethics reform responded with a silent shrug Tuesday when asked if lawmakers should be paying taxes on trips their spouses take for free.

``It’s not come up in our discussions,’’ Sen. John McCain said at a news conference Tuesday when asked if lawmakers planned to address the alleged loophole.

Meanwhile, like-minded reformers Sen. Russ Feingold, D-Wisc., Sen. Joseph Lieberman, D-Conn., Rep. Marty Meehan, D-Mass., and Rep. Chris Shays, D-Conn., touting new lobbying reforms with McCain, looked on befuddled.

Surely they can’t all be completely unaware of the issue – particularly since Peter Urban of MediaNews Group’s Connecticut Post asked both Shays and Lieberman about it in October.

At the time, Shays chief of staff Betsy Hawkins said the approximately $53,000 worth of privately-funded trips the congressman took with his wife between 2000 and 2005 were filed according to House Ethics Committee rules.

``If the committee amends those rules in the future, he will comply with whatever changes are made to those rules,’’ she said.

Lieberman spokesman Rob Sawicki echoed those comments with regard to the approximately $4,626 worth of trips the senator took with his wife during the same period. He also added that Lieberman was advised that paid travel for his wife is not considered taxable income.

``If the IRS determines otherwise, he will obviously abide by its decision,’’ Sawicki told Urban.

Since the Detroit News first reported questions about lawmakers’ tax obligations, members of Congress have come up with several different reasons as to why they are not obligated to pay taxes on their spouses’ trips. The most common explanation is that congressional spouses all are akin to the First Lady, performing a vital ceremonial role on each trip, and that they are therefore exempt.

Tax attorneys have ridiculed the idea that there are 535 First Ladys. Moreover, they say, the IRS code is clear: politicians should pay what the rest of Americans do. The watchdog group Public Citizen has filed a complaint with the IRS calling for an investigation.