Obama Citizenship

Tax Cheat, Round 2 Featuring Former Senator Tom Daschle

By Phil

Let’s start with the basics from the AP:

Tom Daschle collected nearly a quarter of a million dollars in fees in the last two years speaking to leaders of the industry President Barack Obama wants him to reform as the administration’s health secretary.

That was just a portion of the more than $5.2 million the former South Dakota senator earned as he advised insurers and hospitals and worked in other industries ? real estate, energy and telecommunications among them, according to a financial statement filed with the Office of Government Ethics.

Daschle’s finances are drawing additional scrutiny because he failed to pay his taxes properly. Although he has made amends with the government, senators said Sunday they are awaiting guidance from the committee reviewing Daschle’s nomination before deciding whether the tax problem could stall or even derail his confirmation.

Obama has said that no one in his administration who has lobbied on a set of issues within the past two years can deal with the same subject matter. The president has already approved a few exceptions, one of them a former Goldman Sachs lobbyist picked to be chief of staff for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner. Daschle, however, is not a registered lobbyist.

While I, personally, don’t have a problem with someone making money being a lobbyist or making money off of presentations, here’s what I find amazing about the “Limousine Liberal” crowd who like to preach about paying taxes, but then don’t do so themselves…

Former South Dakota Sen. Tom Daschle doesn’t appear to be losing too much support for his nomination to be health and human services secretary despite continually unfolding details about his failure to pay $140,000 in back taxes and interest.

Senate Minority Leader Mitch McConnell said he would wait until a report from the Senate Finance Committee, which is to meet Monday to reviewing Daschle’s tax issue and discuss his nomination.

Sen. Jon Kyl of Arizona — who serves on the finance panel — suggested that the speed at which Obama selected his Cabinet members might have prevented candidates from being properly vetted.

“You wonder if this would have happened with Bush,” Kyl said on FOX News Sunday.

As RedState opines:

More from ABC News:

Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery, the former president of the YES network (the Yankees? and Devils? broadcast network).  That same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia 2005, Daschle began using the services of Hindery?s car and driver.  The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle?s official compensation package at InterMedia but Mr. Daschle ? who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense ? didn?t declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require.

Sound familiar?  Did all of these Democrat nominees have the same tax accountant?  Evidently Daschle took measures to correct the problem.

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.

Unanswered questions about Daschle persist pertaining to the tax records linked to his wife, Linda Daschle, a well-known registered health care lobbyist.  Americans should ask how many more questionable nominees the Obama administration will put forward with the controversies over the tax-evading Timothy Geither, and the gun-hating and pardon giving Eric Holder.

In this case, we’re not even talking about issues with tax software or whatever; this was simply an outright failure to pay “his fair share:”

Apparently, Daschle can?t even use the Geithner ?I?m so stupid? excuse, as ABC also discovers that he flat-out failed to report direct income:

The report indicates that Daschle?s failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns.

Mr. Daschle also didn?t report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.

Plus, Daschle claimed almost $15,000 in charitable donations over three years to organizations that don?t qualify for the deduction.

How many Americans make so much money that they could forget about $83,000 of it in a year?

Maybe we as taxpaying Americans really do need Rep. John Carter’s (R-TX) “Rangel Rule!”

-Phil

Full post as published by The Right Side of Life on February 02, 2009 (boomark / email).