Daschle withdraws as nominee for HHS secretary
First we have Gov. Bill Richardson (D-NM) dropping out of consideration for the Commerce position because his administration is being investigated by the Feds for possible pay-to-play. (Yeah, the same thing that got the Illinois Governor impeached.)
Then his Treasury Secretary nominee didn't realize he was supposed to pay income taxes (really? reportedly his employer told him) while he worked for the International Monetary Fund. And he failed to pay back taxes not identified in an audit until he was nominated to be Secretary.
Now Health and Human Services nominee Tom Daschle admits he still owes thousands in back taxes ... after having anted up $140,000 in back taxes and interest.
Moreover, since Daschle left the Senate, he has made out like a bandit in the special interest consulting field. The Washington Post reports that his take is more than $5 million over two years. Moreover:
The six-month delay between Mr. Daschle's recognition of the problem and his filing amended returns raises questions about whether he would have addressed the problem had he not been nominated for a Cabinet post.
The same can be said for Treasury's Tim Geithner.
But if the Senate is willing to put a tax dodger into Treasury, of all places, it's unlikely that they'll let the Daschle tax business interfere with approving one of their own for HHS.
Change, or business as all-too-usual?
Comments
I am even more disgusted by those who are coming out claiming that these were ‘oversights’. In my opinion there are only two options: Either the ‘Artful Dodgers’ were criminally avoiding their tax responsibilities or they are too stupid to be running our country.
My hunch is that Obama’s idealism is getting slapped into reality in DC. It’s easy to call for “change,” but it isn’t so easy to get it done.
The Republicans’ resistance to change make it clear they didn’t get the memo from We the People about our demands for bipartisanship.
And, with tainted peanut butter allowed into the market, I’m wondering about the depth and breadth of corruption within our government.
When Daschle’s colleagues claimed yesterday that he was a straight-arrow, I wondered how many arrows in government look like a pretzel.
Hi, Jessica, I agree it seems hard to believe that these were mere oversights.
Ah, Sunshine … I don’t put “idealism” and “veteran Chicago politician” into the same breath.