Last week, when when I blogged on the failure of President Obama’s nominee for Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to pay taxes, I quoted blogress Jennifer Rubin to note that a Republican nominee in similar circumstances would be “toast.”
Well, it doesn’t look like this Democratic nominee will be toast. “The Senate Finance Committee on Thursday cleared the nomination of Timothy Geithner as treasury secretary despite unhappiness over his mistakes in paying his taxes.”
The vote was 18-5, with all five of the “no” coming “from Republicans, including the top GOP member of the panel, Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa.” Kudos to those guys for doing the right thing. As Wyoming Republican Mike Enzi put it, “I am disappointed that we are even voting on this. . . . In previous years, nominees who made less serious errors in their taxes than this nominee have been forced to withdraw.
Some may say that, given the times we’re in, we need a Treasury Secretary in place as soon as possible. And by all accounts, Geithner is more than qualified for the job. But, it sets a poor example to have a man who failed to pay taxes as the guy in charge of the IRS.
To be sure, Geithner apologized for what he called his “careless mistakes.” But, even in 2006, after he learned of his tax liability in 2001 and 2002, he failed to pay his back  taxes.  He only paid them when the Obama team was vetting his nomination. When this comes up for a vote before the full Senate, I expect the majority Democrats to vote in lockstep with their colleagues on the committee, let’s hope Republicans show as much backbone as did Grassley, Enzi and three of their committee colleagues and vote against confirmation. They may fail to prevent his confirmation, but at least they’ll stand for principle. That will be one step toward restoring our credibility as a party.
While I was initially somewhat ambivalent on Geithner’s tax problem, the more I think about it, the more I believe Geithner should not be confirmed. When, last year, the IRS alerted me to an error in my 2005 return, I reviewed the problem and recalling that I had received an amended form related to some outside income after I had filed my initial return. I paid the taxes they claimed I owed (as well as the penalty). And I’m not a finance guy.
If a man who, by his own admission, made “careless mistakes” doing his own taxes, can we trust him to manage the federal treasury, that is, all of our tax dollars?
UPDATE: Paul Mirengoff weighs in:
One might think that, at a time of an economic crisis commonly said to have been caused by irresponsibility on the part of the financial elite, Geithner’s failure properly to pay his taxes would be a deal-breaker.
. . . .
There is, though, at least one person who, according to the same conventional wisdom that exalts Geithner, could run Treasury at least as well as Geithner. That man is former Secretary of Treasury Lawrence Summers.
Unfortunately, Summers committed an offense far graver in a potential Treasury Secretary than non-payment of taxes owed. He expressed politically incorrect views about why there are more men than women in high-end science and engineering positions.
(Emphasis added.)
Got a court scene for you. A drama fit for Boston Legal if it weren’t going off the air. If you were the lawyer of a tax cheat wouldn’t you use the fact that the head of the IRS is now also a tax cheat?
In his defense, the 2001 and 2002 returns were past the statute of limiations on tax fillings; and the 2003 and 2004 taxes were paid with interest and penalty before he was nominated. Legally, he had no liability to pay 2001 and 2002.
Playing on this tax issue, when the scope of the issues is many magnitudes larger is just returning to the politics of destruction that prevent able and capable people from public service. A friend of mine was on his local school board for several years. He was the only “business” person on the board, the rest were well-meaning and motivated housewives, but he was the only one conversant and familiar with the languages of lawyers, labor contracts and governmental budgeting. After 6-years he gave up his post as it was costing him $26,000-a-yr. in legal and accounting fees to comply with all the public disclosures and open-to-the-public financial and property-filings required here in New Jersey….and this is just for a small suburbam school district that dooesn’t even operate it’s own high school.
Rhino, I don’t buy it. I think there are 535 people in the USA who could serve in Congress who aren’t creeps and crooks. I believe the administration can be populated with secretaries and aides who aren’t tax scofflaws, crooks and molesters. There are 300 million Americans to choose from. Am I the only one who thinks we can raise our standards and keep em high.
After 6-years he gave up his post as it was costing him $26,000-a-yr. in legal and accounting fees to comply with all the public disclosures and open-to-the-public financial and property-filings required here in New Jersey
But those laws are necessary to keep New Jersey government clean and ethical. /sarc
Now that we know the new President doesn’t put much store in some of his top aides being tax cheats, a vigorous MSM would investigate all the members of his administration to see how deep this kind of “honest mistake” goes in the most “transparent” administration in history.
I feel so sick.
His judgment is at issue, not his liability. Should Marc Rich have been considered for Energy Secretary?
In his defense, the 2001 and 2002 returns were past the statute of limiations on tax fillings
After, of course, he had signed documentation from his employer that stated he knew he had the obligation to pay the tax AND had received an extra allowance specifically to cover those taxes.
The fact that he got away with breaking the law does not mean that breaking the law was a good idea. For heaven’s sake, we want to put a tax cheat in charge of the IRS?
You would think that the IRS chief would not be someone who has such a horrid record in paying his self-employment taxes. But, I guess that new rules now apply since Obama was coronated last Tuesday.
What we all need to do is keep pressing for a simplification of the IRS tax code. The darn thing is truly incomprehensible.
Am I the only one who thinks we can raise our standards and keep em high.
One thing that’s struck me over the last few months is that it was a bunch of Ivy League educated bankers that got us into this economic mess, why do we expect a bunch of Ivy League bankers (and lawyers) to get us out of it?
He’ll be confirmed, probably a closer vote than Hillary, but he’ll be confirmed for the big reason is that he’s one of a very few who can handle such a mess at this point in time.
And moaning about the Ivy league? Ha! You think a graduate from the U of Idaho would be more appropriate? While I know it’s popular among conservatives to bash the Ivy league, it just further demonstrates how out-of-touch with reality those that do are.
I think it might be instructive, or at least interesting, to go back a bit in American history, identify those events that both sides of the political aisle can agree were disasters, and then see if it is possible to ascertain the educational background of the chief characters.
Yes the Ivy League has a reputation for being at the apex of our educational system but quite a few historical screw-ups seem to have come from there. So it seems to be just as fair to mock the Ivy League as to denegrate schools like the U of Idaho!
Of course the left rarely if ever admits it is associated with wrong doing so it might be a waste of effort to try this.
Remember yesterday how leftists like Erik and adDave were claiming that Republicans are all racist? Turns out today we find that the Obama Party is actively talking about how it needs to manipulate the stimulus package so that government money does not go to, quote, “skilled professionals and white male construction workers”.
#11 – BuckNut, your post is so full of errors that I had to do a double-take to make sure you weren’t joking.
Unfortunately, I don’t think you were.
Let’s deconstruct your screed, shall we?
“He’ll be confirmed…for the big reason is that he’s one of a very few who can handle such a mess at this point in time.”
So what you are saying is that if you want to have someone in charge of law enforcement, you hire a murderer or rapist? Puh-leeeze.
Geither is anything BUT a paragon of wisdom. From where I sit, he’s got nothing but a string of failures to show for his supposed talents. The banking system practically collapsed on his watch, he was instrumental in the brain-dead TARP scheme, and he can’t even do his own taxes with the help of TurboTax. Oh yeah, he’s a genius. (SARC)
I just find it ironic that the most un-vetted candidate in American history can take the highest office in the land, and nobody thinks to vet his own Cabinet apointees. Liberals need to remember that it is not only competence but character that matters. (Paging Bill Clinton…)
Okay, so that meme is destroyed. Next up:
“While I know it’s popular among conservatives to bash the Ivy league, it just further demonstrates how out-of-touch with reality those that do are.”
Most Ivy Leaguers are elitists at heart – merely gaze at the entire Eastern seaboard for starters Funny, but most of our recent presidents (except Reagan and Carter) went to Ivy League schools – including Algore, who actually flunked out of Harvard Divinity School. (This begs the question – how do you flunk God? But I digress.)
It’s not so much that conservatives “bash” the Ivy League; we just sit back and watch all the pseudo-intellectual Marxist doublespeak emanating from those hallowed halls and report the truth. Talk about people being locked away in ivory towers – they look upon us here in the rest of the country as “bitter” and “clinging to guns and religion.”
Besides, it’s not just Ivy League schools that produce hard-core wingnuts – look at CU (Ward Churchill) and my alma mater The University of Texas (Dan Rather, Bill Moyers, Bill Schieffer – I could go on and on).
Tell me something: if unethical Ivy League-educated bankers brought about this financial crisis, why is everybody so sure an unethical Ivy League educated banker is going to fix it?
Checkmate.
Regards,
Peter H.
Put a tax cheat in charge of the IRS? Sure! That’ll get the moral status of tax collectors out in the open for one and all to see.
Call it part of Barack Hussein Obama’s “new transparency.”
The problem with the Ivies is that their reputation as “the best schools” means that many in power will have attended them simply because of (or in large part due to) that reputation. It’s circular in a jerk-like way. Like many other schools (and even more so in the Ivy League), their costs far outweigh the quality of the educations they offer but that the benefits of networking, alumni associations, the weight of Yale, Harvard, Dartmouth, etc. on resumes, etc. is ultimately the payoff.
I hate to see us ridicule a set of schools just because some of their graduates represent an elitist, patronizing point of view — a view the schools likely encourage. That kind of beer garden populism never works well. I’ve attended private and public colleges and universities and there were all types at all of them.
Can I just say that, so far, ain’t the Dear One off to a rip-roarin’ start. Lessee.
1. His Commerce Secretary has to drop out because of a pay-for-play scandal.
2. His Treasury Secretary commits tax evasion and when he gets caught channels the Steve Martin “I forgot” excuse.
3. His wife goes to the inauguration in a dress so ugly even straight men are making fun of it.
And this is just the first week.
Oh Oh, more Democrat corruption, immorality, and sleeziness.
Caroline Kennedy Schlossberg withdraws from NY Senate seat consideration at midnight. Rumors are, she is also a tax scofflaw, hasn’t paid medicare ss payments on her household staff, and may be having an affair with the editor of the NY Times. Is this stuff unbelievable or what? Bumbling boobs, crooks and creeps. And we’re just getting started.
By the way, all of the above qualifies Ms Kennedy to be part of the Demoocrat Congressional majority. hehe
I hear Barney Frank has called Sam Adams to let him know if he gets kicked out of Portland, there’s a job waiting for him at Fannie Mae.
Yeah, why not? Unversity of Idaho graduates include,
Frank Schrontz, former chairman and CEO of Boeing
Dirk kempthorne, Secretary of the Interior
Linda Trout, Chief Justice of the Idaho Supreme Court
Terrell Bell, Secretary of Education
Lawrence Chamberlain, Dean of Obama’s own Columbia University
as well as governors, senators, astronauts, CEO’s, diplomats, and on and on and on.
Or how about famous drop outs like Woodrow Wilson, Henry Ford, Albert Einstein, Steve Jobs, Bill Gates, Michael Dell
or even flunk-outs like…
Al Gore
The best minds and the greatest talents do not all go to ivy league schools, nor do all the graduates of ivy leagues have the best minds and greatest talent.
*The above post should not imply that Al Gore is even remotely close to possessing one of the greatest minds. I think the evidence suggests he is likely out of his effing mind.
A&E, Caroline Kennedy went to Radcliffe and Columbia. Nuff said.
Speaking of Princess Caroline, it now appears that she has been having an affair with NYT owner/publisher Pinchy Sulzberger. Funny, I thought that having an extramarital affair was Dhimmicrat “street cred.”
Of course, none of the Drive-Bys want to touch this story with a ten-foot pole. Funny how they’d react if it were Sarah Palin instead. We wouldn’t hear the end of it.
Regards,
Peter H.