CHESSNOID

Obama’s nominations falling out is expected. I think some of these rich politicians who decide to pay their taxes after learning they have bigger opportunities on the Obama platform are hypocrites. Maybe that is why they don’t care how tax money is spent since they avoid paying them.

Yeah, I know that is not fair to say since I don’t know the full circumstances. There were a couple of years I owed taxes and had to get on an IRS payment plan. I owed them money and paid it every month till it was paid in full. These guys knew they owed money for a few years  and even though they “seemed” to have the resources to pay it, they just didn’t.

So far we have Timothy Geithner, Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, and Nancy Killefer all nominated by the Obama Administration who seem to have “tax errors” they weren’t aware of.   Is it a big deal that the people who will have a hand in deciding tax payer sponsored “bailouts” and “stimulus packages” can’t get their personal tax issues resolved until they are nominated for a cabinet position?

According to the Wall Street Journal, Geithner’s tax issues were:

In 2006, the IRS audited Mr. Geithner’s 2003 and 2004 taxes and concluded he owed taxes and interest totaling $17,230, according to documents released by the Senate Finance Committee. The IRS waived the related penalties.

During the vetting of Mr. Geithner late last year, the Obama transition team discovered the nominee had failed to pay the same taxes for 2001 and 2002. “Upon learning of this error on Nov. 21, 2008, Mr. Geithner immediately submitted payment for tax that would have been due in those years, plus interest,” a transition aide said. The sum totaled $25,970.

The Obama team said Mr. Geithner’s taxes have been paid in full, and that he didn’t intend to avoid payment, but made a mistake common for employees of international institutions. That characterization was contested by Senate Finance Republicans, who produced IMF documents showing that employees are repeatedly told they are responsible for paying their payroll taxes.

As to why Mr. Geithner didn’t pay all his back taxes after the 2006 audit, an Obama aide said the nominee was advised by his accountant he had no further liability. Senate Finance aides said they were concerned either Mr. Geithner or his accountant used the IRS’s statute of limitations to avoid further back-tax payments at the time of the audit.

Other tax issues also surfaced during the vetting, including the fact Mr. Geithner used his child’s time at overnight camps in 2001, 2004 and 2005 to calculate dependent-care tax deductions. Sleepaway camps don’t qualify.

Amended tax returns that Mr. Geithner filed recently include $4,334 in additional taxes, and $1,232 in interest for infractions, such as an early-withdrawal penalty from a retirement plan, an improper small-business deduction, a charitable-contribution deduction for ineligible items, and the expensing of utility costs that went for personal use.

ABC news on Daschle:

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs just now at his briefing said of former Senator Tom Daschle’s failure to pay more than $120,000 in taxes until last month, “It was a serious mistake, one that he caught and remedied. We still think that he is the best person to do health care reform.”

The Washington Post has it at $146,000 in taxes.

Until this week, Daschle was regarded as a shoo-in for confirmation. His undoing came with the release of his financial disclosure forms last Friday and information that he had paid $146,000 in back taxes and interest to resolve problems flagged by Obama’s vetters.

Not sure how much Killefer was on the hook for since she resigned before the questioning:

Washington Post:

I recognize that your agenda and the duties facing your Chief Performance Officer are urgent. I have also come to realize in the current environment that my personal tax issue of D.C. Unemployment tax could be used to create exactly the kind of distraction and delay those duties must avoid. Because of this I must reluctantly ask you to withdraw my name from consideration.

What I don’t understand is how Obama can say this and mean it and then keep Geithner on:

Mercury News:

“Did I screw up in this situation? Absolutely. I’m willing to take my lumps,” Obama said in an interview with NBC’s Brian Williams, one of five interviews he conducted Tuesday. In interview after interview with network anchors, Obama said there are “not two sets of rules” for people — and said that average taxpayers deserve to have public officials who pay their taxes on time.

He is starting to remind me of  George Bush where his words often contradicted his actions. I don’t think I am the only one to notice. His former NY Times cheerleader Maureen Dowd is feeling betrayed. In her latest Op-ed:

“I think I messed up. I screwed up,” he confessed to Couric.

He told the anchors that the man who helped make him president, Tom Daschle, had made “a serious mistake” by not paying taxes on a car and driver. (It should have been a harbinger of doom when Daschle began sporting those determined-to-be-hip round red glasses.)

Mr. Obama admitted that “ultimately it’s important for this administration to send a message that there aren’t two sets of rules. You know, one for prominent people and one for ordinary folks who have to pay their taxes.”

It took Daschle’s resignation to shake the president out of his arrogant attitude that his charmed circle doesn’t have to abide by the lofty standards he lectured the rest of us about for two years.

Before he recanted, his hand forced by a cascade of appointees who “forgot” to pay taxes, his reasoning was creeping perilously close to that of the outgoing leaders he denounced in his Inaugural Address: that elitist mentality of “we know best,” we know we’re doing the “right” thing for the country, so we can twist the rules.