times the amount of money saved in the latest budget deal. now, it's fairly politically easy to cut money for the irs because who likes tax collectors? since the time of jesus telling people you're a tax collector has not exactly been the best opening line when making conversation at a cocktail party. did they have cocktail parties in biblical times? i don't know but i digress. of course without tax collectors there are no taxes. without taxes, there is no civilization. so in this sense the people who process those forms that we have or are about to mail in are all atlases. they hold all of this up. they are in their quiet, anonymous way kinds of heroes. and it is their quiet heroism that is the theme of a very much anticipated novel that is released today. that book is "the pale king" about a group of irs agents in peoria, illinois in 1985 and also the final unfinished novel written by the late genius david