OK- here is the tax scandal waiting to pop up that Woodward referred to - Daschle

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

http://thecaucus.blogs.nytimes.com/2009/01/30/daschle-nomination-snagged-by-back-tax-problem/?hp

January 30, 2009, 6:55 pm
Daschle Nomination Snagged by Back Tax Problem
By Robert Pear
President Obama’s pick for secretary of health and human services, Tom Daschle, filed amended tax returns and paid more than $100,000 in back taxes on Jan. 2, administration officials said on Friday.

Mr. Daschle concluded that he owed the taxes for free use of a car and driver that had been provided to him by Leo Hindery Jr., the founder of a private equity firm known as InterMedia Advisors, the officials said.

Mr. Daschle was chairman of the firm’s advisory board. In a financial disclosure statement filed this month with the Office of Government Ethics, Mr. Daschle reported that he had received large amounts of income from InterMedia, including more than $2 million for consulting and $182,520 in the form of “company-provided transportation.”

The belated tax payments help explain delays in the confirmation of Mr. Daschle, a former Senate Democratic leader who had been expected to win swift approval from the Senate.

[zulchzulu]

1. Depending on how this pans out, it could cripple healthcare reform

The Repigs could point to Daschle's tax problem as a sidebar to their usual "arguments" about "socialized medicine" and the other garbage their pharma and insurance masters feed them...

[leftstreet]

3. Actually, BigPharma and BigInsurance dumped the RW for the Dems

Daschle is the poster boy of Universal Insurance Payments For All

[panader0]

2. $182,520 for transportation? Yikes!

In two years? That'd buy ten brand new cars. I like the guy, but that is outrageous.

[Kurt_and_Hunter]

4. South Dakaota's a big state....

:eyes:

[ErinBerin84]

5. I was wondering about this all week.

That's shitty....kind of Friday night dumpish that we're finding out now too. Honestly, I hadn't even been paying attention to delays in his confirmation,lol.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

6. It's bad, because 2 instances makes a "trend" that the Repubs will capitalize on.

Sorry, they should have passed passed on Daschle once this became evident and they knew they were already dealing with it the Treasury guy.

I hope Howard Dean is warming up in the bullpen.

[ErinBerin84]

9. that would be a trade up, that's for sure.

[snowbear]

11. Yeah really.. I hope he has Dr. Dean's phone number on file...

.
.



-

[Cha]

16. When I was reading

your OP..the first thought I had was, "I bet Dean paid all his taxes".

Are we bad?

[onefreespiritedchick]

20. No

Because, I wish Dean was the nominee also.

[CharmCity]

7. Use of corporate jet?

Supposedly Max Baucus does not like Daschle. He chairs the Senate Finance Committee, which oversees tax matters and does not like situations like this that make the system look crooked.

[Purveyor]

8. What the fuck is it with 'these people'? Shit for brains? eom

[tbyg52]

10. They think the rules don't apply to them - apparently some Dems have the disease, too. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

12. These guys are smart enough, rich enough and sophisticated enough

to know better. Unpaid "perks" that should be declared as taxable income most likely run rampant through both parties, but as a "little person" I really resent it. Dems are not immune, obviously. I bet this one goes through more quietly than you would expect with a lot of uneasy sideways glances from both parties.

The Treasury guy's situation was fairly unique (being employed as an independent contractor overseas) but this situation with Daschle is about as far from unique as you can get, both in the corporate world and the political world. Watch for the Republicans to have no objections and get this through quicker than you think and then they ALL breathe a sigh of relief.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

13. Well, strange lack of interest in this topic.

I haven't seen it in latest breaking or general. I guess no one cares. Maybe it will just go away. (Although, personally, I doubt it)

[firedupdem]

14. Jeez, not this shit again! Why don't these people do the right thing!

I owed the state of michigan $312.00 and they nabbed it out of my checking account!

[snowbear]

17. LOL, you are tOooOoOoo funny!

.
.



I seriously don't know what we'd do here without you! ~~~

[firedupdem]

19. LOL!! I am so serious! I ignored them about that $312.00 and they

took it right out of my checking acct. Then I got a letter in the mail that basically said "Don't worry about mailing it, we got it. Thanks".


:dunce: I felt like a major loser!

[trudyco]

15. Who is this sugar daddy and what did Daschle do to earn 2 mil?

It's time to find clean people, maybe new blood.

I like the Howard Dean idea. Don't know why Obama doesn't like him.

[Grateful for Hope]

18. I wonder if

President Obama is relying too much on "advisors", and not enough on his own assessment of his potential staff members. I think that he needs to rely on himself more.

[Generator]

21. Two words:

Howard Dean. (a gal can dream)

[Thrill]

22. I can't defend this. Daschle needs to be out of the administration

[anonymous171]

23. Woodward totally overstated this. nt

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

24. In what way? He said practically nothing. nt.

[bigwillq]

25. I would not vote for Daschle.

But I'm not a Congress critter.

But still. This is not change. It's the same old corrupt games.

Show Daschle the door out of DC.