Have you ever heard of a skinny chef? How about an overweight yoga instructor? These would be hilariously ironic but also obviously hypocritical.

Yet, the Internal Revenue Service recently released data on those who fail to pay their taxes. And believe it or not, it is actually federal employees themselves. The reports are part of a 20-year-old IRS effort, called the Federal Employee/Retiree Delinquency Initiative, to increase tax compliance by federal employees. That’s right, stop laughing, pick up the Kleenex and weep at the arrogance of our nation’s leaders. The very people who get paid by our tax dollars and demand that we pay taxes are often the very one’s not paying their own. Further, they get paid to spend our tax dollars while not paying their own. It’s pure hypocrisy!

Federal employees actually owe a total of $3.3 billion in back taxes to the federal government. In all, 318,462 government employees owed back taxes as of last September, which unbelievably is an increase of 2.6 percent over the year before. Congress is the worse of the feds, with the non-payment rate among the House of Representatives at 4.87%, while the rate among the Senate is 3.24%. Overall, there are 714 tax delinquents on Capitol Hill owing $8.6 million and specifically thirty-six employees in the Executive Office of the President who are delinquent as well.

The lesson in all this: we must all practice what we preach. Leaders must lead from the front not the back. Parents must be the model they expect of their children. Leaders must instruct with their own initiative to set examples in every arena of life.