Do you believe Tom Daschle's excuse that not paying taxes on $80,000 was "unintentional"?

[RiverStone]

Not to mention the use of a car and driver which was also unintentionally not reported.

story at link: http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/02/02/daschle.taxes/index.html

I have never earned $80,000 a year and although for most of the past decade I have really resented what most of my taxes went towards, I can't fathom making such an unintentional mistake.

I like Tom Daschle, but one thing the Shrub administration was good at was abusing their power and using the bully pulpit to do what ever the hell they wanted. One of President Obama's mantras during the campaign was transparency in government. Although Tom did correct his error prior to being forced to by the IRS, I find it telling that he only did so upon learning he was to be vetting for a possible cabinet post.

On balance, I'm thrilled Barack Obama is president, but like the old saying goes: Do as I do, not as I say. IMO, Tom's "error" should eliminate him from the high honor of being appointed secretary of Health and Human Services. There are certainly other Dems (like Howard Dean) who also have many noteworthy achievements and did not happen to miss reporting such a large amount of income.

Real CHANGE means we no longer appoint people to high office who feel they do not have do what the rest of us have to do --- like reporting our damn taxes!

:think:

[wtmusic]

1. The car I might accept on bad advice, but consulting fees?

Daschle is full of it. Kick his ass out.

[liberalmuse]

2. Nope, but that's not as important as the fact......

that he lied to President Obama about it (or didn't mention it--same thing in this case). He can't be trusted.

[Avalux]

3. No. How could that be a mistake?

I don't buy it and Obama needs to look elsewhere for head of HHS.

[VeraAgnes]

4. It happens........

I'm fine with him making the correction. I have compassion.

[aquart]

5. No. Make Tom go bye-bye.

[VeraAgnes]

6. I'm fine with the man paying his taxes now..

Life is an adventure, let's move on and save our country.

[Johonny]

26. I agree

Tax mistakes aren't uncommon. He fixed the problem and moved on.

[cobalt1999]

7. Of course not.

However, he's a professional politician. They are 99% egotistical assholes looking to profit from their positions. I don't have high expectations of them.

Just pick the egotistical asshole that will do some good while they profit.

If you can't tell by now, I'm a cynic.

[Life Long Dem]

8. The country needs to come first

Who knows what's going on but playing footsie isn't one of them.

[sinkingfeeling]

9. Could have been a mistake. What type of form does one recieve to show consulting fees? If a person

has multiple sources of income, it is entirely possible to overlook a W-2 or 109x or something.

[Blue_In_AK]

35. I have multiple sources of income,

and I still report it all, even when I don't get a 1099. Doesn't he have an accountant?

[mainer]

37. An accountant is only as good as the client's paperwork

How do you put a value on a car and driver if no one tells you what it's worth? I'd have no idea.

[Blue_In_AK]

38. True enough,

but it seems like people in government should be extra specially careful to mind their P's and Q's. It almost seems like people who make this kind of money should err on the side of overpayment just to forestall questions like this coming up.

[katandmoon]

10. He's full of shit, another entitled bastard who doesn't think the rules apply to him, and Obama

Should shitcan his nomination. The fact that Obama stands behind this money-grubbing tax cheat is extremely troubling.

[Redbear]

11. I think its like McCain and the houses

People who go from government to lobbying have so much money and so many gifts coming they lose track of it all.

[terisan]

17. Kerry has 5 super expensive houses-McCain's wife is rich from a family business &

Kerry's wife is super rich because she married into (first husband) Heinz ketchup fortune.


The Repubs hit on Kerry's houses in Election 2004 and Dems hit on McCain's houses in 2008.

I consider it pure political theater.

[LeftHandPath]

12. I'm more concerned about his conflict of interest...

as a lobbyist for health insurance companies.

I would prefer someone who is independent of the corrupt health care providers.

[TreasonousBastard]

13. I don't care. I care whether or not he can...

do the job, and it looks like he could if this silliness doesn't sink him.

(FWIW, I do not know one single person who reports every penny of income-- it's not the nonreporting, it's the amount that separates him from the rest of us.)

[GeorgeGist]

14. Emphatically NO, but most likely ...

he'll be rewarded, with a wink and a nod, anyway.

[terisan]

15. Daschle-Intermedia-Leo Hindery, Jr - Follow the Money-Nothing innocent Here

Daschle's consulting for Hindery's Inter media company is really lobbying. He was making $2 million annual on this. Daschle's wife Linda Hall. has been a big bucks lobbyist for years while Daschle led the Senate (airlines were her specialty )

Everyone in DC knows the tax code on perks like limos and chaffeurs.

The real story is what was and is he doing for Hindery who was involved in the last big stock market crash/scam (Global Crossing) .

Daschle was ineffective for us as Senate Majority leader and I suggest that he played dumb and worked with Bush and Corporations against we the people.

Unfortunately the Obama cabinet is infested with people like Daschle--his nomination is to me the signal that real Health Care Reform is not on Obama's agenda and that telecom spying is going to continue.

Hindery was big in Edwards' s campaign. Folks at some point we have to stop lying to ourselves about out politicians and their involvement with corporate evildoing.

A vote for Daschle is a vote against our economic self-interest (unless you are one of the thieving super rich).

[RiverStone]

16. What was that Prez Obama said regarding hiring lobbyists?

Something about....never will do it.

:shrug:

[terisan]

20. Yup-I believe Daschle as Consultant has found a loophole to the lobbying law. nt

[catnhatnh]

18. I'll believe it....

as soon as ANY politician is shown to have ever "unintentionally" have overpaid their taxes...

[blues90]

19. NO!

[suston96]

21. Actually it's up to the IRS. Will they find it tax evasion, which is criminal.

Tax avoidance, as it seems in this case, even though found to be in error by the IRS, is not criminal but usually exacts penalties and interest.

As to his choice by the President to be in his cabinet, that's up to the President and his legacy committee.

[global1]

22. Dump Daschle - Untrustworthy - Remnant Of Old Washington - Will Continue To......

embarrass President Obama.

[Dappleganger]

23. No, it's hypocritical and he should have been vetted better.

[wildbilln864]

24. NO! nt

[emilyg]

25. No.

[KittyWampus]

27. Yes. It was unintentional. But it doesn't say much for the guy.

[mainer]

28. he earned 5 million dollars during that time

out of which he paid probably 2+ million dollars in taxes. So it's entirely possible that the fact he still owed an extra $40,000 in taxes (50% of the $80,000) might have escaped his attention. Especially if he didn't get any documents listing the car and driver as income.

[hfojvt]

34. exactly. It gets kinda complicated when you rake in that much money

plus freebies that need to be reported as income. I wonder how the mistake was ever caught. I myself found a mistake in my favor when I was doing my 2004 taxes. I found out that I was eligible for the retirement savings credit on line 53, and I had not taken it in previous years. So I went back three years, as far as I legally could, and filed amended returns.

[mainer]

36. Taxes are so damn complicated if you have multiple sources of income

I don't understand a lot of the IRS printed material. Plus the law seems to change every year. I keep a huge drawer of receipts, expenses, etc., etc., and it's FULL OF PAPER.

[Ex Lurker]

42. which raises the question

what was he doing to make all that money in the first place?

[hfojvt]

46. that's the worst part to me

not that he failed to pay $130,000 in taxes, but that he was making enough money to have to pay $130,000 in taxes. Sounds like a sell-out to me.

[Fireweed247]

29. I think Daschle not paying taxes is a huge distraction from the real reason he should be thrown out

He and his wife take money from the health care INDUSTRY! What the hell is Obama thinking?

[RiverStone]

49. Which begs the question: What is the difference between a 'consultant' and a 'lobbyist'?

......:shrug:

Is there any?

[Better Believe It]

30. When you make millions from anti-union corporate law firms as Tom and Linda Daschle did

ya just might "forget" $80,000 bucks which is chicken feed to Tom and Linda Daschle.

And they helped anti-worker corporate law firms bust health care workers unions!

[Ganja Ninja]

31. There's no way it was a mistake.

When someone pays you $80,000 you know damn well that's taxable.

[mainer]

32. Confession: we screw up on our taxes every so often

One year we got a threatening notice from the IRS telling us we owed them an extra $8,000. (We are small business owners with income sources both domestic and foreign.) Hubby and accountant dug out all our records again and went through it all with a fine-tooth comb. It turns out that, yes, we'd made a major boo-boo -- and the IRS ended up owing us! About three times the amount they originally wanted to ding us for.

As our accountant told us later, "you should send the IRS flowers for bringing it to your attention."

I have a feeling they're going to think twice before auditing us again. They'll remember us as the idiots who'll pay too much in taxes if they just ignore us.

[Blue_In_AK]

33. No, he's a tax cheat,

and he shouldn't be anywhere near the Obama administration.

[MajorChode]

39. Make sure you have ALL the facts before you condemn Daschle

Daschle had millions of dollars in income during the period in question and that income came from a wide variety of sources. It shouldn't come as a surprise that their might be mistakes on his returns. It's actually amazing there weren't more mistakes. I doubt too many sitting members of congress could come out squeaky clean if their taxes were examined this closely.

1) The limo service:
Daschle self-identified this problem back in June 2008, well before he would have known he was going to be appointed for anything.

2) The non-deductible charity contributions:
It's certainly understandable that he wouldn't have known the organization didn't qualify.

3) The $83,333 payment not claimed as income:
The payment never appeared on the 1099 the organization sent Daschle. As far as he knew the reported amount was correct. How many of YOU check your W-2s against all your pay stubs to make sure they are accurate?

[cobalt1999]

40. Yes, but has he ever made the mistake of over paying?

Somehow that doesn't seem to happen. When all mistakes benefit the politicians, it doesn't seem like an accident.

[mainer]

43. We don't know. And he probably doesn't know, either.

Or he wouldn't have overpaid.

[MajorChode]

44. If he did, you wouldn't hear about it

Nor would you hear about any other politician making a similar mistake.

But under reporting income is far more common.

The bottom line is this. Daschle had an accountant do his taxes. Nobody has accused the accountant of wrongdoing. It certainly appears as if Daschle made a genuine attempt at providing his accountant with all his income information. What else can you expect of someone?

Compare this to Coleman who almost certainly intentionally concealed income he received from a "good friend" of his through his wife. There is no comparison.

[mainer]

45. As I mentioned above, I've accidentally overpaid on taxes

And was completely unaware of it until the IRS told me I owed them money and forced me to go back and reexamine my records. If Daschle ever overpaid, he probably has no idea.

[Ex Lurker]

41. Michelangelo Signorile is railing against him right now

says he should never have been nominated, that it shows Obama was never serious about reforming health care.

[Better Believe It]

47. Shouldn't Tom and Linda release all of their tax returns from the time he left the Senate?

How much money did they make representing corporate union busting law firms?

[karynnj]

48. Like you, I would notice if $80,000 was not reported to me -

but Daschle made about $4 million. Given that amount, it is more believable that Daschle did not realize that his 1099 was in error. (This would be like someone with $100,000 of income not noticing that his employer got his income wrong by $2000. ) That actually is believable.

Now, the car and driver seems harder to believe. At minimum, it is enough of a perk, that you would think he would have mentioned it to his accountant. He also should have made sure that all the payroll taxes of the driver were paid.

I liked Daschle, but this does show the revolving door and the huge amounts that people out of office command. (A related question is whether it is ok for his wife to be a lobbyist - this is the same problem that HRC had - though obviously Bill Clinton is more high profile. You would think a similar agreement might be needed to insure she stayed out of the healthcare field. ) Though these issues are disquieting, I was actually more appalled with Geitner's reluctance to admit what we all likely think is the truth - that at minimum - he refused to take responsibility for not paying the 2001 and the 2002 taxes until he was nominated. he had to know when the IRS called him on 2003 and 2004 that he had the same error in the earlier years. It is likely that he didn't because they were outside the statue of liabilities. This does show a lack of honesty, but it was something many might do. That he insults us by claiming that he didn't think of it shows an arrogance. That combination of lack of integrity and arrogance does worry me - and I resent that the Obama vetting team and Obama didn't withdraw him.

[RiverStone]

51. Both Daschle and Geitner marginalize Obama's campaign message

Many of us were disappointed when Bill Richardson withdrew his name from consideration for commerce sec. Without knowing all the factors at play, clearly Bill (or someone on Obama's transition team) felt there was too much political capital at risk to go forward with Bill's nomination.

Barack Obama ran a masterful campaign and just about made every right decision during the campaign. I heard some talking heads in the MSM say its easier for Prez Obama to make (slightly) controversial or hypocritical choices during the first few weeks of his presidency, since 4 years from now who will give a shit. I just think that Obama ran on a transformative message - if he starts to marginalize it with folks like Daschle and Geitner, how long will it be before it's just business as usual from arrogant politicians on The Hill?

I say, don't even start! Keep it clean and we won't even have to take notes.

As an aside, I sure as hell wish Howard Dean was being recruited to consider a post!

[karynnj]

53. I agree - and I resent the position that it places the

Democrats in the Senate in an awkward place. (It would be a big embarrassment to Obama if his nominee is rejected - especially with Democratic votes.) In addition to the ones you mention, I really think the agreement with Bill Clinton was too weak - learning that the foundation got money a year after it did is pretty weak. In addition, I think the foundation was a red herring to divert attention for the fact that he (like Daschle) made HUGE amounts of money lobbying for foreign countries and giving speeches.

Now, it might be hard to find people who were completely clean of anything - I do think the nature of the problems of the three does make it harder to believe that Obama will clean this type of business as usual. (I am glad that he (like any Democrat) will sign SCHIP, and bills like the Lilly Ledbetter one and he lifted the global gag rule - none of which Bush wouldn't have done. I also like that he has spoken against torture and will close Gitmo.

[ljm2002]

50. The way I understand it...

...the company making those $88,000/mo payments reported it wrong on their year-end form they sent to him. So at first blush it seems like it could have been an oversight on his part...

...only, you know and I know that he doesn't do his own taxes. He pays people to do it for him. And they should catch this sort of thing. So already I'm going hmmm... Then there's the fact that all the mistakes made just happened to benefit him financially.

But apart from all the taxes stuff: whatever happened to Obama's promise not to stack his team with lobbyists???

I know these people are all in on the revolving door thing. But personally I wish they'd just go down the list until they find someone who is not a lobbyist, is not married to a lobbyist, and has managed to keep their taxes straight somehow. If that means they end up with an unknown John Q or Jane Q Public, so be it. It has to better than what we have now in Washington.

[MagickMuffin]

52. Here's my problem with Daschle

Mr. Daschle, who has paid the back taxes with interest, is the latest of Mr. Obama’s cabinet choices who have run into trouble, and the revelations about his finances — which include more than $300,000 in income from health-related companies that he might regulate as secretary — raise questions about the presidential vetting process, as well as Mr. Obama’s ability to keep his pledge to run an administration free of outside influence.

A spokeswoman for Mr. Daschle, Jenny Backus, said Mr. Daschle became concerned last June that he might owe taxes on the car and driver, and instructed his accountant to investigate. Mr. Obama named Mr. Daschle to the health secretary’s post on Dec. 11. But it was not until late December or early January, after the accountant came back to Mr. Daschle with a report on the back taxes owed, that the former senator informed the White House transition team. Ms. Backus said Mr. Daschle did not think to mention it earlier, in part because “he thought his accountant was taking care of it,” and in part because he had no idea the amount owed would be so high.

Could his "accountant" be a republicon, and wanted to make Daschle look bad?.?.?

Daschle while a Senator also had some ethical problems with his lobbyist wife, which is never a good combo. It doesn't look good, if you know what I mean.



I think Howard Dean would have made an EXCELLENT HHS Sec. he is certainly qualified, but Dean isn't seen within the party as a player. So, he gets kicked out. I think the primaries proved that he was playing "By The Rules" and it cost him dearly. So, much for having ethics and standing your ground. Rules be damned, even though he didn't make the rules, he was doing what he was suppose to do.

[Tierra_y_Libertad]

54. Sure. And, I believe that his dog ate his homework.

:nopity: :nopity: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl: :rofl:

[JerseygirlCT]

55. It's a loser of an excuse either way

Either he's so well off that 80k is easy to overlook, or he's lying. The first is something of a PR problem, even if you overlook the legal problems. The second compounds the potential legal problems.