So Timothy "turbotax' Geitner got approved, but Daschle is forced to withdraw...

[cynatnite]

Pretty fucked up if you ask me.

Geitner admitted he screwed up. He had back taxes and used turbotax - now he runs the treasury.

Daschle did the same thing and was up for HHS and had nothing to do with the treasury. He's forced to withdraw.

We continue to live in a hypocritical society.

[Klukie]

1. Agreed...

pretty fucked up

[prolesunited]

2. I don't think Geitner should have been approve either.

But I'm glad Daschle is out. We need health care reform so badly, and it shouldn't start out under such a cloud.

[cynatnite]

4. This country just got fucked with Daschle being forced out...

and you can bet we won't get Howard Dean either.

IMO, those are the only two who could get the job done. Geitner would have been the better sacrifice, IMO.

[mike_c]

9. Daschle wasn't ever GOING to "get the job done...."

I'm very glad he was forced to withdraw. He will never bring significant reforms to HHS.

[cynatnite]

11. We don't know what would have happened...

but he and Howard Dean are the only ones I could come close to trusting in that job. Neither will have it so we'll have to see how serious Obama is about health care reform with his next pick.

[EFerrari]

22. Bingo. Whoever forced Daschle out, it wasn't the insurance companies. n/t

[sandnsea]

3. Daschle used a free car

and pretends he didn't know he was supposed to claim it on his taxes. Not to mention his lobbyist connections and his wife's.

Geithner was caught in an obscure tax law. Big difference. I kind of like that he used TurboTax, actually kind of proves he wasn't using an accountant to find every loophole he could.

[cynatnite]

10. Geitner didn't pay self-employment taxes for several years....

Daschle used a free car.

Geitner runs the treasury which runs the IRS...so I would think it would be a tad more important that the man have a slighty better idea of his tax responsibilities.

Basically, both men failed to pay back taxes. Same thing. Geitner got approved and Daschle didn't. Hypocritical to the max.

[sandnsea]

18. On foreign income

From the IRS site:

"Compensation for services performed as an employee of a foreign government, without regard to citizenship, residence, or where services are performed, is not considered to be wages for Social Security and Medicare tax purposes. This includes services performed by ambassadors, other diplomatic and consular officers and employees, and nondiplomatic representatives."

He made a mistake, thinking his employment fell under this rule when it didn't.

Completely different than sitting in a free car every friggin' day.

[cynatnite]

24. He's supposed to run the treasury...the IRS...

he should know this shit.

Geez, I had visions of heckofa job brownie listening to him at the hearings. It was pathetic.

What's laughable is how hard everyone is working to defend this guy, but yet...trashing someone who did the same thing...not paying his back taxes.

It's friggin' hypocritical.

[sandnsea]

29. I'm not defending the guy

I'm explaining the difference between the two tax situations. Just like I've explained the difference between Zoe Baird and her hiring an illegal worker and not paying taxes that had just became law so everybody knew about it, and Geitner. Different.

[mike_c]

5. the real problem is not that Daschle was forced out....

It's that Geithner was not. Neither should have been nominated in the first place-- both are too firmly clenched between the buttocks of the powerful institutions we need to reform.

[NJmaverick]

6. The difference that is, unlike Geitner, there were no extenuating circumstances

to explain Dascle's failings

[cynatnite]

14. Yeah, Geitner's excuse was understandable...

:sarcasm:

Geithner said at the hearing that he was always under the impression that he was an employee, not a self-employed contractor,<35> while he served as director of the Policy Development and Review Department of IMF.

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Timothy_Geitner

Oh, silly of me to expect someone who is going to run the treasury department to not know his filing status. :eyes:

[NJmaverick]

16. You do realize that a stupid comment is not improved by the sarcasm symbol

if you took a little time and bothered to research the issue, beyond the wikipedia, you would learn just how complex the tax issues were for Geitner. One tax expert said his $4000 tax software would have made the same mistakes.

[cynatnite]

17. keep making excuses for the guy...he's running the damn IRS...

and he doesn't know his filing status. :eyes:

[NJmaverick]

20. that's a pathetic response, lacking in true intellectual ability

you seem to think emoticons can make up for a lack of substance. Unfortunately for you, that's not the case.

[cynatnite]

21. It's all about the emoticons for you, isn't it? Ignore the common sense...

but trash the emoticons.

A person who is going to run the IRS should know how to file his or her own taxes. Geitner didn't know. He gets the job. Kind of reminds me of heckofa job brownie.

Does it help that I didn't use emoticons this time?

[NJmaverick]

23. I expect well informed and thoughtful responses from DU posters

sadly I am often disappointed, as knee jerk and ill informed seems to be the rule, instead of the exception.

Geitner's tax short comings were quite reasonable. That's why only the most bitter and partisan republicans voted against him. As I said, that can't be said of for Daschle.

[cynatnite]

27. They did the same damn thing...nonpayment of back taxes...

What's so hard to understand about that?

Geitner runs the treasury. He's supposed to know this shit. Hell, both of them should, but it was Daschle who got thrown under the bus.

Our health care is in shambles and one of the few people who might be able to make a difference there is forced out. The other being Howard Dean. Meanwhile, the dumbass who used turbotax and didn't know his filing status gets his job and is dispensing billions of dollars to banks and other corporations.

This shows exactly how fucked up our priorities are in this country.

[NJmaverick]

32. Your problem is your simplistic understanding of the issue

sadly things are rarely as simple as you think they are.

[cynatnite]

34. Maybe it is simplistic, but I do expect the guy that's going to run the IRS to know his status...

I didn't realize it was too much to ask.

[NJmaverick]

37. Do you think the man that runs Honda can fix his own car?

Do you think that Bill Gates can fix a windows computer?

[cynatnite]

38. At least they're intelligent enough to hire a competent person...

and not embarrass themselves or who they represent the way Geitner has. Another reason why I question Geitner's intelligence.

[NJmaverick]

39. Who said they did what you are saying they did?

now you are just making wild assumptions to support your position.

[cynatnite]

40. I was commenting on what you said. n/t

[Tangerine LaBamba]

30. I agree

They're very different scenarios.

What finally made me give up on Daschle the other day was when it was reported that he had learned about this tax problem in June, but didn't report it to the Obama people until the vetting process was underway.

That's not an example of a nominee serving his President honorably. That just sucked.

[NJmaverick]

33. I agree totally. Plus how do you not know a free car service is not taxable?

how is it that you need to reduce your charitable deductions? Clearly Tom was play fast and loose with the IRS tax laws and it came back to haunt him. As you point out, Tom should have been upfront with Obama.

[hfojvt]

41. Douglas Shulman runs the IRS and there is no comparison to Brownie

http://www.irs.gov/irs/article/0,,id=98192,00.html

True, Geitner is his new boss, who apparently cannot fire him, but as Treasury Secretary, he's responsible for things like the Federal Budget and the US economy and money supply. Things he is supposedly well qualified to manage. As for his tax errors, that's a little bit like the jokes we made in college that "math majors cannot add". Of course, we can add, but every so often even somebody who works in multivariable calculus makes a simple addition mistake. That does not make them an incompetent idiot any more than Warner's interceptions make him a bad quarterback.

[Runcible Spoon]

7. yep, Geithner shoulda been dumped too.

:evilfrown:

[RiverStone]

36. Both appointments were hypocritical

At least Tom had enough humility to withdraw (or there were other skeletons in his closet)!

[Skink]

8. Sounds like Dashle's doing pretty well.

[Blue_In_AK]

12. I'm glad Daschle withdrew, and I agree with you

that Geithner should not have been confirmed. If the guy who's supposed to be running the IRS can't figure out the rules, we're in trouble.

[Bake]

13. Maybe Daschle knew there was more to come out.

And he preferred that it NOT come out ... that's the consensus around my office.

Bake

[SergeyDovlatov]

15. Geitner is a banker. Daschle is just a lobbyist. Big difference. *cringe*

[Tangerine LaBamba]

19. We're fucked

If a tax problem amounting to under $1,000, a minor matter of unemployment compensation taxes, which, given how badly the DC government handles tax issues, is par for the course, can force away a candidate who is otherwise remarkably qualified for the post, we are fucked.

We're letting insignificant details keep us hogtied, and the Republicans must be laughing their sorry asses off at us.

Molly Ivins quoted P. D. James in her introduction to "Who Let The Dogs In?" - "I wouldn't ask a plumber how he treated his wife and children before letting him loose on the leaking toilet."

Molly and P.D. knew what mattered. I wish things like tax problems, which have nothing to do with the competence of the people nominated, would be returned to the insignificant place where they belong.

[Phoebe Loosinhouse]

25. Well Geithner survived. Daschle would have survived if Killifer hadn't popped up.

I really do believe that. I think Obama and Daschle were in full go down with the ship mode and the Senate was on board but after Killifer, it just all became too ridiculous for all of them.

[Tangerine LaBamba]

28. I agree

The timing is just too close to be coincidental.

But, maybe Obama will do some things a bit differently now. I don't think he quite anticipated the fervor of the media or the recalcitrance and bad-mouthing of the GOPigs in Congress.

I'm going to be that he's going to do something smart next. I have faith in Our President Obama.

[EFerrari]

26. Geitner is Wall Street. Everyone wanted him.

Daschle may know where too many of the bodies are? Why is he gone? The tax thing is just an excuse. Was it just to try to embarrass Obama?

[Rex_Goodheart]

31. Neither should have had the opportunity to withdraw

Obama should have shitcanned both of them.

[FLAprogressive]

35. Both are stinky......