TPM:
Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.
Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.
Take it away, Daily Show:
Seriously- we were confronted with story after story about how the Obama team had the most “intrusive application ever.” Did it not ask them if they had paid their damned taxes?
gopher2b
I would like to comment that this is and remains a continuing problem but by doing so I reveal myself as a Troll who does not mindlessly follow the ways of the Obama. Cole, please inform your readers how to proceed.
sparky
mister cranky sez:
i am starting to get a little tired of the mandarin class not paying taxes on household help. who do they think they are, hedgies?
more seriously, if you want to be in government you have to play by the rules, which are lax on big things (lobbying, for example) but stringent on small things, like domestic help taxes.
TheFountainHead
Le sigh.
ChrisNBama
I’m as pro-Obama as they come, but this is getting downright ridiculous. Are there any so-called experts out there who actually pay their taxes? Who don’t hire illegal immigrants to cook and clean for them? I mean, anyone?
BigHank53
Well, you know, for the last eight years some certain President did direct the IRS to devote more resources to catching lower-income tax cheats. ‘Cause all those people with lots of money are good at self-policing, don’t you know…just like investment banks, peanut butter manufacturers, and Enron.
Radon Chong
Isn’t it the application process that keeps discovering these problems? And can we just go ahead and audit all the rich people before bailing them out please?
ChrisNBama
Well, I see Obama chose a good day to go out and promote his stimulus plan. I wonder how many questions will concern the bill or the ongoing meltdown of his tax dodging appointee’s?
Anyone care to provide a ratio?
SGEW
Tom Toles lays it down:
linky
TheFountainHead
@SGEW: Pretty much…
michelle
Yes they did and that’s what the problem is now.
Without the vetting, we would never have known whose car Daschle was driving or whether Nancy Killefer (!) didn’t pay tax on her maid. It is not as if IRS agents go rogue and audit cabinet members, right ?
Samuel
You forgot to blame Kentucky’s ice storm on Bush’s failure to control global warmin…..er, I mean….climate change. Or maybe Obama still doesn’t know the phone number to the FEMA office yet.
Seriously, what Cole said. Wasn’t the questionnaire for potential Obama Administration employees about 1000 pages long with questions about what toilet paper you used? Nobody cared enough to ask about failure to pay taxes on an immigrant housekeeper? Seriously…
demimondian
@gopher2b: No, you are a Troll who mindlessly looks for ridiulous things to complain about. Today’s whine is only one more piece of evidence in support of that conclusion.
Back under the bridge for more practice, sweetie.
Church Lady
Oops, looks like Daschle may still owe more additional taxes. While finally paying up on the federal income tax and penalties for the car and driver, the unclaimed income from his consulting work and rejiggering his charitable deductions, he still hasn’t paid the medicare tax he owes on the income he finally claimed.
Daschle says he mentioned the car and driver to his accountant in June, but didn’t actually file the amended returns until January. It took over six months for his accountant to file the amended returns? And they still are wrong? Something just smells wrong about the whole thing. Obama needs to dump Daschle.
Media Browski
Obviously Obama’s team thought that a blatant refusal to pay taxes would be thought of as a feature rather than a flaw to the GOP.
Super Robot Bipartisan Lobbyist Team Activate!
Daschle: Form of a a nebbishy Beltway insider . . .
nevrdull
damn. i’m starting to get pissed off here. he hasn’t even filled all of his cabinet positions yet – and why haven’t we heard anything from the president? i want to see at least a little outrage and an acknowledgement that this doesnt happen if this administration wants to get better marks on the ethics scale.
see, i want this guy to succeed, but its the continued occurrence of little things like this that i find insulting. i know its not his fault, but geez, what does this say the oh so rigorous vetting process that they were supposed to go through? (as you mentioned)
MNPundit
Well, that is what his fealty to the Chicago School has wrought. Truly, a blight only less pernicious than the Austrian School by degrees.
Bootlegger
Anyone remember how many Bush appointees admitted to not paying taxes? Anyone care to guess how many of them were guilty of it but didn’t fess up?
Media Browski
@MNPundit: Ah, don’t be knocking my schumpeter! And I was saving some Von Mises for a romantic Valentine’s reading. You just have to see the hot, sexy love hiding behind the cold hard conservativism.
jibeaux
It is getting a little bit embarrasing. Also I am in a bad mood because I spent hours doing my taxes last night on my slow as hell computer only to discover I might net about $150 back from the state, but I owe the feds first. Evidently crossed the threshold into the next income bracket. I got a nice refund last year and had been hoping to replace my computer with this year’s. The Man is keeping me down, The Man is preventing me from doing my little bit to stimulate the economy, and The Man is not paying his own taxes, and I am getting ornery.
gopher2b
@demimondian:
I’ll bite. What ridiculous thing have I previously complained about?
Zifnab
I think half the reason any of this stuff is even coming out stems from the fact that Obama was deliberately intrusive with his application process. I don’t remember anyone talking about Donald Rumsfeld or Alberto Gonzales or Dick Cheney dodging taxes. But I do remember Halliburton getting in a little trouble by sheltering large sums of money overseas to avoid paying taxes on their income.
And, worth noting, you had illegal immigrants working for Mitt Romney. I’m too lazy to go back over the who’s-who of tax cheats and rule breakers within the last administration.
We can go tit-for-tat all day with this. Ultimately, I’d like to know why these taxes aren’t getting paid and what the IRS plans to do to curtail the transgressions.
Then, once we’re done tax-sniping, I would – perhaps – like us to get back to discussing the stimulus, health care, and Iraq situations.
Gus
The taxes are a diversion. The lobbying is the real problem. Appointing lobbyists to positions of power is right out of the Bush playbook. Daschle should show some semblance of dignity and withdraw his name from consideration.
Zifnab
@Samuel:
Wait, you mean this FEMA?
MikeJ
"Withdrawn her candidacy". Had she been nominated? Had anyone in the administration been in favour of her? What kind of candidacy is there for an appointed job?
ChrisNBama
I second Gus at #22. Daschle has become a millstone. Time to cut him loose.
gopher2b
If the above is true (via Andrew)
I’m going to go ahead and call bullshit on this one. Why does she have to go but Daschle stays? This makes no sense. Either there is way more to the story or she’s being sacrificed for Daschle’s and Geitner’s sins.
Samuel
And why is it that the first tax cheat (male) in the Obama administration is now Treasury Secretary, the second tax cheat (also male) is the preseumptive HHS Secretary, but the first female tax cheat is quickly jettisoned?
Blatant discrimination. All tax dodgers should be treated fairly dammit….
BenA
They’re just being partriotic as far as the Republicans are concerned.
I think the real story is, these morons need to get better accountants.
TheFountainHead
Maybe because she withdrew her nomination and the other two didn’t?
kay
I’m going to go ahead and call bullshit on this one. Why does she have to go but Daschle stays? This makes no sense. Either there is way more to the story or she’s being sacrificed for Daschle’s and Geitner’s sins.
She should go because she was the chair of the IRS Oversight Board from 2001 to 2005.
No joke. It’s one of her credentials.
Church Lady
@gopher2b – Baseball rules. Third strike and you’re out.
Media Browski
@Zifnab: FTW!
Napoleon
There is no way that question is not on the questionaire.
IMO, both Tom D and Guither, or whatever his name is, knew better and were intentionally playing fast and loose and suddenly when they want the Obama positions they felt the need to fess up. Why else would it come out now.
Mazacote Yorquest
Hey, the real Tunch Ilkin is on TV! (parade)
Chet
She did pay her taxes. She just didn’t pay them on time.
Once again this seems like a problem where it’s not clear who has to pay what. Sure, if she had a butler who only worked for, and was paid by, her, she should be paying taxes like an employer.
But was this more like having a contract with a cleaning service, like Merry Maids or something? Where it’s not clear if you’re paying an employee or paying a business that has employees? That would be "household help", but certainly a situation where it’s not clear she’s under any particular tax liability.
If she didn’t think these people actually worked for her, but rather worked for a company that she contracted for their services – and it wouldn’t be hard to be under that impression – it’d be an easy mistake to make.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
I don’t think the problem is with the application, but rather with the people who seem to think they didn’t do anything wrong and then answer "yes" (or perhaps they do know they didn’t pay all their taxes and think they’ll never get caught!).
The type of person who ends up in that type of position of power often has an over inflated ego with narcissistic tendencies – so, that could be why this situation is so rampant (no matter which party they belong to, or support).
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
That’s a good reason.
Xanthippas
Seconded. I also spent about two hours the other night figuring out how little I was going to get back. And no, it doesn’t make me all that happy to read about how our dear Democratic leaders representing our interests on the Hill live in a world where it’s apparently common to fail to claim income from the free car you got, or hire illegals to clean up after our kids and not pay their payroll taxes.
Yes yes I know…they’re not like us, even if they are Dems. But do they have to rub it in our godamn faces?
Brick Oven Bill
"And in this economy, when so many folks are already working harder for less and struggling to get by, the last thing they can afford is losing part of each month’s paycheck to simple and plain discrimination."
Killefer is another example of why those angry Hillary primary ladies were exactly, one hundred percent, correct. Here is a woman, who made a $900 oversight, on her two nannies for her two children, who is thrown under the bus. But the MEN, who owed TENS, or HUNDREDS, of thousands of dollars in back taxes got to keep THEIR jobs.
And in yet another example of why those angry Hillary primary ladies were exactly, one hundred percent, correct is that President Obama’s female Senate staffers only earned 78% of their male counterparts.
Grrrrrrrr.
gopher2b
@The Silent Fiddle of Nero:
Daschle was on the Senate Finance Committee which writes the tax code.
Geitner is now head of the IRS.
liberal
@Gus:
Rick Taylor
I seem to remember a series of scandals involving appointees under Bush during his first term failing to pay social security taxes for immigrant nannies. I didn’t care much about that then, and I don’t care much about this now.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
So, what the fuck do you want me to do about it? I’m sure they wouldn’t listen to me. As long as the taxes get paid before these people take their positions, I see no problem, personally. Sometimes these things are an oversight, and I’m not one who has enough information to judge if these deeds were done on purpose or not. If they were done on purpose, I can only say it takes a crazed loon to think he/she could get away with it while trying to obtain a presidential appointment.
liberal
@Chet:
I’m not so sure. AFAICT the IRS has some very simple, clear criteria for whether someone is an employee (at least for tax purposes).
I strongly suspect that she didn’t pay these taxes, or didn’t pay them on time, because many or even most people hiring domestic help don’t do so.
I’m going to pay if/when we hire a nanny, because thuh wife is a labor lawyer and is very uptight about such things. But that’s atypical.
————–
My #40 above: meant to say "Agreed".
gnomedad
@SGEW:
Shrek ears?
wilfred
People stopped asking questions years ago; witness the post after this one regarding the banking scam. This is postmodernism, mate, no one goes below the surface of anything.
Critical thinking began to be excised from the American psyche the day Reagan ran his Morning in America twaddle, it’s been downhill ever since.
Maus
As with all of life, it’s not what you say that makes you an asshole as much as HOW you say it.
jibeaux
So did Holder actually pay his taxes? Sucka!
Deborah
Huh. The kitten, while obsessively monitoring the cursor just in case it moved, didn’t glance at Steven Colbert (or Michael Steele) for the full clip.
It is not as if IRS agents go rogue and audit cabinet members, right ?
Thanks for providing one of the Networks with their surefire new Fall hit.
On Killefer….post-Clinton everyone knows you pay tax on the household help. If this was the every-other-Saturday babysitter and technically her bimonthly pay rose up to the margin of SS taxes, I’d be willing to give her a pass, but this is tax law anyone should know. I know it and I’ve never had household help.
Daschle I waffle: There is a case to be made (by Hugh Hewitt of all people) that put together a former senator used to a car coming with the job and the overly-byzantine tax laws and you could get this. Evidently he found out about the tax on perc drivers at a social event in the fall and then called his accountant (see Ambinder); if a professional does his taxes and didn’t twig to this is that Daschle’s fault? On the other hand this would read much better if only Geithner got the pass. "Not even accountants can figure out rich people’s taxes" is a blah way to start the administration, even if I’m onboard with simplifying the tax ode.
Echo other commentors that this is coming out because of the tougher vetting. But once it comes out, it’d be nice if the message wasn’t "just too hard to find anyone untainted by lobbying or tax evasion, so we gave up."
TenguPhule
John, if Obama’s team hadn’t been digging, we’d never have found out.
Eric U.
She may not have thought about paying unemployment taxes. I can understand that, because there is no way I would have thought of doing that for domestic help.
dog's eye view
I wonder if Obama is thinking on giving a "dealing with Reverend Wright" style sermon about paying taxes being the price of civil society; that the code needs to be simplified — radically! — but that the wealthy and well-educated should not be ducking taxes as much as they apparently are. That tax compliance should not be the exclusive preserve of less wealthy Americans, who are already struggling aplenty. And that he will not reward negligence with high office in his administration.
====
Killefer’s initial tax problem snowballed from a $298 unpaid unemployment tax on a household employee, which resulted in a DC tax lien and was resolved for less than $1,000.
Per the WaPost (and let’s please audit opinion page editor Fred Hiatt as a public service!!):
The District government alleged that after Killefer left Treasury, she failed to pay unemployment compensation tax for a household employee. After 18 months, a lien for $946.69 was placed on her home in the tony Wesley Heights neighborhood of Northwest Washington — including $298 in unpaid taxes, $48.69 in interest and $600 in penalties.
The lien was filed March 7, 2005, and resolved July 29.
Killefer and her husband, an economics professor, had a teenage son and daughter, according to the Associated Press. But, the wire service said, she told Harvard business students at the time that she had two nannies and a personal assistant to run her life when she was on the road.
http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2009/02/03/AR2009020300912_2.html?hpid=topnews&sid=ST2009020301282&s_pos=
Dave
Make it two down. Daschle just withdrew his name.
The Other Steve
I’m not terribly upset that Daschle is gone.
smiley
Daschle’s out.
J.
Brilliant clip. Thanks for sharing, Mr. Cole.
So has cheating on your taxes replaced cheating on your spouse as the new mea culpa for pols?
BDeevDad
Damn, you guys are fast.
Pasquinade
MSNBC: BREAKING NEWS: Daschle withdraws his nomination for health and human services secretary
TenguPhule
I can’t wait for the IRS audits of GOP officials.
If this is any kind of representive sampling of the Hill, Obama will have enough on them to pass anything.
Michael D.
@ChrisNBama:
I don’t know if the Mexican lady who cleaned my house a couple years back was legal or not. Frankly, I didn’t care.
And honestly, I can forgive ANYONE for that, as long as the person is not a live-in housekeeper.
But this IS getting ridiculous.
To a certain extent though, I can KINDA understand Daschle and the car. I don’t know if I would have known to do that. But I guess he’s supposed to be smarter than me and he WAS on the Finance Committee.
steve
obama is obviously in over his head…
Napoleon
It is more complicated then that and what I think most people here understand. Even if your twice monthly babysitter did rise to the level of needing to pay SS tax and you just unilaterally decided to withhold it, and she is not an employee under IRS regulations (and instead is an independant contractor), the babysitter has every right to consider you be in violation of the law and bring an action against you. Of course she would then be subject to paying the self empolyment tax (look for it on your 1040, line 57) that just so happens to equal the employee and employer (FICA) end of SS contributions and otherwise have to pay quarterly estimates, etc., and at a certain point you would have to issue a 1099, but you would not need to withhold and make contributions.
BUT, if it happens that she is your employee, then you are in violation if you do not withhold, etc.
Eric U.
we often speculated that bush had something on the dems, maybe it was the tax cheating. Why this doesn’t work on the republicans I don’t know.
D-Chance.
No wonder the Jackasses don’t mind raising everyone’s taxes… they never pay them, anyway.
J.
Daschle has withdrawn. They’re dropping like flies!
Trinity
Daschle just withdrew his name from nomination. Edit: Sorry, I just saw this was posted above!
sparky
ot, a little noiqu bait
Fencedude
I hope the people who were speculating that he’d nominate Deen are right.
The explosion will be glorious.
SGEW
Another triumph for my benevolent overlord conspiracy theory!
Watch. Obama’s playin’ us all . . . this is all planned out within a day or two in the Giant Three Ring Binder of Justice.
I am becoming convinced that some of Obama’s initial nominee choices (Richardson, Daschle, now Killefer) were intentionally chosen so that they would withdraw.
What I’m sayin’ is: Obama knew all this. He’s checkin’ off boxes on his flowchart as we speak.
JenJen
Dr. Dean, a lonely nation turns its eyes to you. Whoo-ooo-ooo!
That would be "teh awesome" but wasn’t Daschle chosen because he’s expert at lobbying Big Pharma?
I’m certainly not sorry to see him kicked to the curb… good gawd, when he was Majority Leader, that man rolled over every time Republicans gave him a treat.
GMC No Relation
Should he name Dean or another Republican Senator to the cabinet? Discuss….
Zifnab
@Michael D.:
Then I hope you don’t try to run for office. I hear the Canadians are even more xenophobic than us Americans.
Andrew
Too bad about Nancy Killefer. She made a very minor boneheaded mistake, but it was a fairly trivial amount that she resolved on her own before she was up for a job.
But thank god that Daschle is out. He is a fucking crook and plainly corrupt. By far the worst choice Obama made for a cabinet position.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
If you think only Democrats do this, you’re sadly mistaken. It’s a class thing, not a party thing. If you’re so confident that no Republicans do this, please feel free to implore them to disclose their tax status.
The Grand Panjandrum
Daschle withdrew. Good riddance. I’m sick of all the fucking excuses. He was a goddammed Senator and should be more careful. Besides all the lobbying questions about his wife were actually more disturbing.
EDIT: Guess I’m a little late to the TD has withdrawn his name party.
Napoleon
Isn’t Oklahoma’s Coburn a physican . . . . (ducking)
Bootlegger
@steve: Which is still an improvement over W, that bar is so low a contortionist couldn’t limbo under it.
Good riddance to Daschle, too much money paid to him by the people he was being asked to reform.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
If I ever hire someone to clean my home (fat chance of that), it will be an American, just to make sure I don’t get caught up in the taking advantage of immigrants thing.
Bootlegger
@D-Chance.: Apparently all these folks did, that’s how we found out Dittohead.
MobiusKlein
Pay the taxes, but jeeze, who here who has paid taxes for more than 10 years has never blown a 1040 once?
It can get very, very complicated if you own a business, or have other odd income sources.
Bootlegger
@Fencedude: That would be sweet.
steve
bush is looking damn good right now…bring him back
TenguPhule
Comepletely untrue. All of them paid taxes, they just didn’t pay enough. And thanks to Obama’s teams, they paid in the end.
Adrienne
@SGEW: Ha ha. A heaping helping of that Obama Ju-Jitsu huh? LOLz.
I rather liked Tom Daschle and from what I read, it seemed as if his was a totally inadvertent and honest mistake which he could have weathered. Shame. However, if this means that Obama now nominates Dean because Repubs were throwing a hissy fit over Daschle, I’m gonna be over the freakin moon.
Imagine that….Obama nominating the evil, liberul, socialist commie Dean who engineered two consecutive ass whoopins at the ballot box and giving the Repubs the vapahs.
Wait…that would be some seriously concentrated Obama Ju-Jitsu. Lethal even in small dosages.
Church Lady
@SGEW – oh yeah, it’s all part of his diabolical master plan. He defends him, has his press secreatary go out and defend the nomination, stating that Daschle has their full support, have Dem senators go out and defend him, etc., etc., and then accepts his withdrawel with sadness. Give me a break. The more this got batted around, the worse it looked. When anything Obama does loses the support of the New York Times (see today’s editorial), it is OVER. Time to cut your losses and live to see another day, or nominee, as the case may be.
Adrienne
Damn you Cole.
Bootlegger
@steve: He’s looking great right where he is and none of this is Obama’s fault, unless we’re now blaming other people’s criminal behavior on the president who wasn’t president when it occurred. At least with W we know he told ’em to be criminals.
Xecky Gilchrist
@JenJen: I’m certainly not sorry to see him kicked to the curb… good gawd, when he was Majority Leader, that man rolled over every time Republicans gave him a treat.
Agreed, though Reid has now shown they don’t even need the treat.
Michael D.
@Zifnab:
Really?? I’m Canadian through and through and I’ve never heard of Canadians refered to as xenophobic till you said it.
gwangung
Immigrants ARE American. Particularly if they’re legal….
I know enough immigrants to know how they’re hustling to make a buck, and I have no problem helping them to make it.
Hmph. And I guess that disqualifies me from holding high office…
Fulcanelli
@Eric U.: Their accountants are also Republicans.
Napoleon
Really? Are you including French Canadians, at least if you are defining xenophobic as including dislike of Canadians who are not French Canadians.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
Some are, yes. Some are not legal. That’s not a concern of mine though. I would hire a natural born citizen just because of the questionable way this issue is treated.
Now, kindly fuck off. I didn’t look for a fight with you. I was just stating that it seems many of those who get caught up in this not paying their maid’s taxes thing seem to do so quite often when employing immigrants, it has a poor appearance of exploitation.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
Typical Republican behavior.
gopher2b
You have anger management issues.
I think Obama felt like he owed Daschle something because the Big D was one of the first to board the Obama train. I’m glad he was tossed off but it took too long. He shouldn’t have been nominated once the team vetting team found out about the tax issues (which would have been sooner if Daschle hadn’t waited so long to tell them).
gwangung
Long as it’s a personal initiative and not a social/politcal issue, I don’t have a problem.
I know you’re not looking for a fight, but I get WAAAAYYYY too much crap personally (fer God’s sake, I’m third generation), and I know way too many people who get crap in general for "not being American", meaning "not being white." And this sort of sentiment tips way too easily into something more xenophobic.
Even when it doesn’t get xenophobic, there are the matter of unintended consequences, when legal people get screwed over because they "look" like they might be trouble.
ksmiami
First – I think that a few people messing up their taxes is a silly thing to argue about as Americans are losing their homes and their livelihoods and secondly, refer to my letter that will be going out to all the Repuke congressional members….
Dear Republican Shitheads:
Tax cuts are not a stimulus to the economy and trickle down never worked. Now please let the grown ups rebuild the neglected infrastructure in this country. Even the Romans built aqueducts and spas for the plebians.
Signed:
a concerned sane citizen
Fencedude
@Church Lady:
When anything Obama does loses the support of the New York Times (see today’s editorial), it is OVER. Time to cut your losses and live to see another day, or nominee, as the case may be.
OH NOES
A NYT Editorial that didn’t totally support Obama, why, such a thing has never occurred!
(Seriously, thats the best you’ve got?)
Church Lady
@Fencedude – link to one that doesn’t, then get back to me. No, it’s not the best, but given the subject (Daschle) and the fact that he’s now no longer the nominee, even with all the "full support" he garnered (right man, right time, etc., etc.) it’s enough.
SGEW
Church Lady, CANT U SEE THE TRUTH?!?
OBAMINARI IS AN
EVILBENEVOLENT OVERLORD!1one1!OPEN YOR EYEZ SHEEPLE!
passerby
@Radon Chong:
What Radon Chong said. And extend the same to all elected and appointed officials in government. The problem is, there is simply not enough man power to audit all those hypocritical clowns running our government (into the ground).
How many gas bag Senators, Rep and Dem, who are sitting on the approval committee are guilty of the same types of tax evasions?
Sen Ted Stevens was targeted, but, how many more stevenses would we find who are likewise guilty of quid pro quo-ism? Blagojevitch. Same thing. How many of his fellows pols who voted him out of power have engaged in similar (perhaps not as blatant) activities?
The whole damn system is rife with the attitude of entitlement and a certain feeling of immunity that comes with their overblown sense of power.
Hypocrites all. Vote ’em out.
Free At Last
Does anyone know of an example of a male nominee ever getting caught in a nannygate/housekeepergate situation, or do they do this kind of vetting only for females?
Has anyone here ever tried to find a Nanny that wants her income reported? From experience, be prepared to pay upward of 25% more than the going rate.
Fencedude
@Church Lady:
We’re talking the same NYT that until a few weeks ago still employed Bill Kristol, right?
Just want to make sure we are on the same page.
liberal
@gwangung:
Looks really don’t have much to do with guessing who might be foreign. Accent does.
I don’t mean that anyone with an accent is likely not a citizen. I mean anyone without an accent almost certainly is a citizen.
gwangung
To anyone with a brain, yes.
Unfortunately, I think there are a lot of people without brains in this country…I got on from border crossings purely for my looks, never mind that I sound Californian, if anything….
Church Lady
@Fencedue – You forgot to mention David Brooks. Yes, the same New York Times editorial page that currently employs Paul Krugman, Bob Herbert, Frank Rich, and Maureen Dowd. You’re obfuscating. Find a link to an editorial (not a paid opinion piece) critical of Obama.
steve
bootlegger…certainly the underlying failure to pay the taxes is not obamas fault but the god awful decision to nominate them is…couple this with the stimulus bill which really isnt a stimulus bill and he’s building quite an early resume of incompetence
gwangung
Anyone who says this is none too comptent themselves.
steve
oh yeah, and i forgot about obama’s stunningly courageous decisions to close but not really close gitmo and to bring home troops from iraq in damn near the same time frame called for in the us/iraqi withdrawal plan negotiated by the bush administration….incredible change that man has brought to america….LOL!!!!
passerby
The whole unpaid taxes snafu and the "I don’t want to be a distraction…the full faith of Congress and the American people" excuse seems kinda weak. I don’t believe altruism has anything to do with TD backing out.
Daschle is being denied by political forces. Curious to know what the real political game is here.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
Yeah, well, on one side, I’m a second generation American (and a 24th generation on the other side), so your argument doesn’t hold water for me. I’m just stating that natural born non-immigrants know how to clean too, and it doesn’t smell of immigrant exploitation. I’m not saying that immigrants aren’t Americans, I’m saying that they shouldn’t be the exclusive type being exploited as housekeepers who seem quite often to be the recipients of pay that get government appointment nominees in trouble.
The Silent Fiddle of Nero
And your opinion matters to me how, troll?
Zifnab
@Michael D.: MGK at MightGodKing complains about it every now and again. And I’ve read a couple of other bloggers that claim Canada tries to define itself as "not-USA" to the point where they actively screen out US TV, businesses, and – to some extent – citizens.
John PM
@ksmiami: #98
I would like your permission to send your letter to my Republican Congressman. I would like him to point to a time when tax cuts stimulated the economy and explain why building/repairing infrastructure is a bad thing.
TenguPhule
It spends money.
Anyone who argues that isn’t stimulus is either lying or stupid.
Or both.
NonWonderDog
@steve:
Fix’t.
gopher2b
Solid argument.
Frank
Full disclosure: These are general comments. They are not based on any special knowledge of the case under discussion.
A lot of persons don’t know that they need to pay social security taxes for home help. They see their "help" as 1099 contractors, not as W-2 employees, if they think of the tax code at all.
And some persons who do that sort of work don’t want employers submitting information to the IRS and Social Security (1099s go to the IRS; W-2s go to Social Security); those employees sure aren’t going to volunteer that information to their employers. It’s called the "underground economy."
No one tells the employers, and, if they don’t check, they are not going to know.
After all the publicity over nannygate, you’d think there wouldn’t be much excuse for this.
But a lot of people don’t pay attention to the world around them, either. Just look at the last eight years.
(I’m the treasurer of my church. I spent half a day doing W-2s and 1099s for four paid staff. Originals only, no errors, no corrections. It’s not fun.)
That One - Cain
@Deborah:
I foresee a new ’24’ spinoff.
cain
steve
spending money is not stimulus you dumb ass….especially money you dont have….
gopher2b
I don’t know how my opinion matters to you. Take me through the process.
gwangung
Somehow, I do not think the word "stimulus" means what you think it does.
Definitely non-competent. Even if you’re not Keynesian, a competent person wouldn’t say that.
TenguPhule
You win an irony of the day.
SGEW
Eureka! I’ve finally figured out the post ironic age! Dig it:
"Ironic" now just means "Republican."
Think about it. Someone says or does something. You might once have said "Well, that’s ironic." Now you will probably say "I think that guy is a Republican."
The idea needs work, but I think I’m on to something here.
ksmiami
Anyone can use my letters, comments or snark… Not saying that I contribute much to the debate, but I have a pretty good bs detector that has served me well in life
DougJ
The Comedy Central feed has crashed my browsers three times in the last 20 minutes.
Dave_No_Longer_Laughing
What, is that a joke? The taxes aren’t getting paid because the folks don’t want to pay ’em, that’s why! They’re called "tax cheats." These are SMART PEOPLE, right? After all, they’re Democrats… They’re supposed to know how to pay taxes.
You really believe your own bullshit that Democrats are on the up and up, don’t you?
What’s the IRS plan to do about it? Just what they’ve always done: they go after the cheats and send ’em to jail when they catch ’em. They got Al Capone, you know, and he wasn’t no dummie.
It’s not that hard to understand the tax code and to pay the taxes you should. It just takes some time, that’s all. Mostly, you have to know how much money you made in the last year, make the right, allowed deductions, and then either pay or request a refund accordingly. Phooi on calls to "simplify" the tax code/laws. Catch, prosecute and jail the tax cheats. It’s the right thing to do. And while we’re at it, how about people not hiring illegal immigrants as nannies. There are plenty of legit Au Pair agencies out there. Pay the damned taxes, follow the law, and walk the walk.
iluvsummer
@liberal: @liberal:
Hmm, in many cases you’d be wrong. I moved to the US as a teen, had an American accent and a green card by the time I was 20, didn’t choose to become a citizen until I was in my 30s. I know other people like me. Not everyone with an American accent is a US citizen.
Confused
I see a lot of people here saying ‘horray for Obama’s vetting process,’ since that was what caught these tax…’errors.’
Just a question, but if Obama’s team was the one to catch the errors, why did they nominate them despite these things? If I was interviewing someone for a job, I wouldn’t give them a job until the interview was complete…
Maybe I’m off base here, but if they were indeed caught by the vetting process, why were they vetted before the process was complete?