Barack Obama’s nominee for Secretary of Health and Human Services knew about his tax troubles involving the use of a car and driver last June and didn’t inform the transition team until weeks after his nomination, the New York Times reports.
WASHINGTON — President Obama’s choice for health secretary, Tom Daschle, was aware as early as last June that he might have to pay back taxes for the use of a car and driver provided by a private equity firm, but did not inform the Obama transition team until weeks after Mr. Obama named him to the health secretary’s post, senior administration officials said Saturday.
Perhaps the transition team can be excused for the nomination of Daschle despite his tax issues, considering he didn’t make it known until weeks later. However, why did President Obama continue to push for Daschle’s confirmation after the revalation?
As Senate Democrats rushed to save the nomination of Mr. Daschle, their former leader, the White House spent the day trying to explain how he survived its vetting process despite his failure to pay $128,000 in taxes.
The White House would not say when the president himself learned of the tax issue, but said Mr. Obama is standing by his nominee.
“The president believes that nobody is perfect, but that nobody is trying to hide anything,” Robert Gibbs, the president’s press secretary, said in an interview, adding, “I think Senator Daschle rightly is going to have to answer questions, but I think members will be satisfied with the answers that he gives and will understand that he’s the right man for the job.”
So Daschle learned about the issue last June yet didn’t pay the back taxes until the vetting process?
“We wish this didn’t happen,” said Senator Charles E. Schumer, a New York Democrat who is on the Finance Committee, “but he’s chosen such quality people that nobody minds taking a bit of an extra step to help get them in.”
It’s amazing the tolerance liberals have for The One’s nominees failing to pay several years’ worth of taxes. Yet the Vice President himself considers not paying more taxes unpatriotic. How quickly would the average American be forgiven for forgetting to pay $353,552 in taxes? Yet Geithner has been confirmed as the head of the Treasury and Daschle’s on the road to his own confirmation.
No wonder Democrat politicians like to raise taxes on Americans – they fail to pay taxes themselves so why would they care?
I guess Gibbs means that nobody is trying to hide anything now… now that what they were trying to hide has been brought to light and there’s no way to hide it.
As to the idea that it took his accountant six months to resolve these questions, please – is this the sort of glacial progress we can expect as Daschle oversees the transformation of the US health care system? For any Democrats out there not familiar with the process by which the rest of us pay our taxes, most returns are filed by April 15; summertime is the slow season and one would hope that as important a person as Tom Daschle could have gotten an answer promptly, if he had so desired. In fact, Daschle only got his answer after he had been tapped for a post requiring Senate confirmation; if Daschle had gotten the nod for a consigliere spot in the White House, I have no doubt his accountant would still be researching this.
Heh.
by Stephan Tawney on February 1, 2009