-
Throw the Book at Him
June 13, 2013 | 196 comments
-
Testimonial to a Great American
June 6, 2013 | 39 comments
-
A Close Call at the Newseum
May 30, 2013 | 7 comments
-
Obama’s Imbroglios
May 23, 2013 | 45 comments
-
My Rahm Reunion
May 16, 2013 | 16 comments
The Current Crisis
Obama’s Toxic Assets
Sooner or later their lives are put in order by the IRS.
WASHINGTON — It has happened again! Another Obama appointee has admitted to tax problems. Health and Human Services nominee Kathleen Sebelius has admitted to irregularities in her tax returns extending over the past three years. She has made good by sending off a check for $7,000. Ms. Sebelius claims that problems were discovered by her accountant as she prepared for her confirmation hearings and that the debt was the consequence of “unintentional errors.” Incidentally, when she was committing these errors she was governor of Kansas.
According to my calculations that makes five Obama nominees who have reported similar tax irregularities, none of which was discovered until they began making preparations for their confirmation hearings. The others who have benefited the U.S. Treasury by submitting to confirmation hearings were the former president of the New York Fed, Timothy Geithner, and former Dallas mayor Ron Kirk. Geithner discovered that he owed the government $34,000 and paid promptly. He is now secretary of the treasury. Kirk discovered that he owed nearly $10,000 and presumably also paid promptly for on March 18 he was confirmed as U.S. trade secretary.
Two other Obama Administration nominees withdrew from consideration when their tax problems were discovered. They are Nancy Killefer, who was nominated to be Chief Performance Officer or White House Performance Czar, before it was discovered that there had been a $946 lien on her house for her failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help. And, of course, former Senate Democratic leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination to head Health and Human Services after it was discovered that he owed $140,000 in taxes and interest. He had also become a millionaire while serving as one of Washington’s hated lobbyists. The Obama Administration is highly critical of lobbyists and also of millionaires.
All of this suggests that the Internal Revenue Service may have hit on a novel way to get tax cheats to pay up. Nominate them to high government service.
Given President Barack Obama’s pledge to reform government, it is somewhat surprising to read of all these tax cheats among his nominees. On the other hand, the fact that so many high-level Democrats fail to pay their taxes might explain why they are such staunch advocates of raising taxes. They themselves do not pay them until they face confirmation hearings. Not that tax irregularities were the only problem faced by an Obama nominee. There was the former Democratic presidential candidate who decided to withdraw his nomination for secretary of commerce when someone told him that his pending grand jury investigation might not look good during his confirmation hearings. That would be Bill Richardson, governor of New Mexico and once ambassador to the United Nations during the Clinton Administration. You might recall that during the Clinton High Jinks Ambassador Richardson served as headhunter (if that is the right term) for the curvaceous Monica Lewinsky when the heat was on.
Ethics may yet become an issue with the Obama Administration which, like the Clinton Administration, came to Washington promising an administration of unparalleled ethical purity. The $410 billion omnibus spending bill is a cornucopia for graft. The $787 billion stimulus bill is yet another cornucopia for graft. Then there is the problem recently editorialized upon by the Wall Street Journal.
It appears that the Treasury Department’s plan for toxic-asset purchases is going to be limited to a handful of four or five huge companies bidding on the toxic assets and managing them. The Journal is too polite to bring up the term Crony Capitalism, but it does speak of the possibility of these few firms reaping huge profits in a toxic-asset purchase plan that might be of only limited effect. “We have no idea if Treasury is playing favorites,” the Journal editorializes, “but it certainly doesn’t look good. All the more so given that some of these big players may have consulted informally with the Obama Administration as it was writing the plan.”
What might be done to vet this plan? Perhaps it could be sent up to Capitol Hill for a confirmation hearing. We have already seen their hygienic effect on Obama nominees.
About the Author
R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr. is the founder and editor in chief of The American Spectator. He is the author of The Death of Liberalism, published by Thomas Nelson Inc. His previous books include the New York Times bestseller Boy Clinton: the Political Biography; The Impeachment of William Jefferson Clinton; The Liberal Crack-Up; The Conservative Crack-Up; Public Nuisances; The Future that Doesn’t Work: Social Democracy’s Failure in Britain; Madame Hillary: The Dark Road to the White House; The Clinton Crack-Up; and After the Hangover: The Conservatives’ Road to Recovery.
Letter to the Editor View all comments (46) | Leave a comment
More Articles by R. Emmett Tyrrell, Jr.
More Articles From The Current Crisis
http://spectator.org/archives/2009/04/02/obamas-toxic-assets
Follow us:
ADVERTISEMENT
The Spectacle Blog
Democrat Dan Maffei Blames Budget Cuts for Girl’s Rape, Mother’s Murder
Robert Stacy McCain | 6.18.13
SPONSORED LINKS
FLASHBACK TO: 1995
-
Pope Culture
A man of faith in a godless age is hitting Americans where it hurts.
-
Why the GOP Does Not, Like, Totally Suck
Mr. and Mrs. American Spectator Reader, let P.J. O’Rourke talk sense to your kids.
-
Dames at Sea
-
In the Absence of Guns
In Britain, defending your property can get you life.
-
The Metaphysical Martini
-
Counting the Costs of Clintonism
The debacle of this president’s administration is both a cause and a symptom of the decline of American values. Unless Congress impeaches him, that decline will go on unchecked. An eminent jurist surveys the damage and assesses the chances for the recovery of our culture.
-
Chuck McHagel
It won’t take long for conservatives to scratch this presidential wannabe off their 2008 scorecard.
-
The Legacy of Old John and Mother Fresh-Roasted
-
It’s the Best Time of the Year
The American Christmas, like the songs that celebrate it, makes room for everybody under the rainbow. Is that why so many people seem to be hostile to it?
-
The Bush Crack-Up
Was the President done in by the economy, or by the politics of the economy?
Clip of the Day
ADVERTISEMENT
jack| 4.2.09 @ 7:33AM
The barbarians who were at the gate have now over run the city. Why the perponderance of tax cheats and corrupt individuals in Obamas cabinet? How could a President have so little respect for the nations tax laws that he would find these people acceptable?
How do you have Raines,Johnson,and Emanuel as advisors when all three were involved in the looting of Fannie and Freddie?
How can you have a Sec of State who has been compromised by her husbands fundraising from other countries?
Is this guy a compete imbecile? Never ever forget Proper tire inflation. This guy really believed it would replace offshore drilling. That was the tell we have a fool as President. Yeah,giving blockbuster dvd gift sets away to heads of state state shows ignorance and lack of class(doesnt he realize these movies are shown around the world) but an IPOD to the Queen tells you all you need to know. why not a pair of crocs or a crack pipe.
McCain and Republicans are responsible for this imbecile being our President.
Kitty| 4.2.09 @ 8:05AM
I think it's safe to assume that these tax cheats did not do their own taxes, that they hired a professional to prepare their tax returns for them.
So what I'd like to know, are the people who actually prepared the fraudulent tax returns also frauds?
...
jack| 4.2.09 @ 8:47AM
Dave, I am not unhappy. I made fortune shorting stocks the moment Obama got nomination. I am long now and loving it.
I am disgusted so many people would vote for guy they would not hire as an employee. Remember no one would hire this lunatic when he graduated from Harvard. So now we have a President who has never had a real job,never led,never managed,has no idea what a profit is, no idea about proper etiquette, bereft of any knowledge of US history,world history,or basic econmics but man can read from a teleprompter. Ted Baxter is president and our children are screwed,but they voted for him cause they dont wanna be called racists.
He has a cabinet filled with people who have never worked in private sector(except for political payback,see emaneul)and are experts at working the system to enrich themselves.
this is starting bad and gonna end worse. As a republican I have to hope our next candidate is not a compassionate conservate, a moderate like McCain, a taxer like Dole, a go along to get along like Bush one,or an imbecile like Ford. Its time for a real conservative to emerge and its time for Republicans to go on offensive and attack Dems from all sides.
David Mathews | 4.2.09 @ 9:05AM
Hello Jack,
* " I made fortune shorting stocks the moment Obama got nomination. "
Wonderful ... you knew that John McCain was a loser from the beginning. I knew that too, by the way.
* "I am long now and loving it. "
You are like the gambler who didn't know when the leave the table. Too bad for you!
* "I am disgusted so many people would vote for guy they would not hire as an employee. Remember no one would hire this lunatic when he graduated from Harvard. "
I suspect that this is the ravings of a talk radio lunatic. The Republicans are such bitter sore losers, aren't they?
* "So now we have a President who has never had a real job,never led,never managed,has no idea what a profit is, no idea about proper etiquette, bereft of any knowledge of US history,world history,or basic econmics but man can read from a teleprompter. Ted Baxter is president and our children are screwed,but they voted for him cause they dont wanna be called racists. "
Undoubtedly racism isn't an issue for you ... since you are evidently a racist and a bitter conservative loser, too.
* "He has a cabinet filled with people who have never worked in private sector(except for political payback,see emaneul)and are experts at working the system to enrich themselves. "
blah blah blah ... step away from the talk radio, unhappy jack, and read a book!
* "this is starting bad and gonna end worse. As a republican I have to hope our next candidate is not a compassionate conservate, a moderate like McCain, a taxer like Dole, a go along to get along like Bush one,or an imbecile like Ford. Its time for a real conservative to emerge and its time for Republicans to go on offensive and attack Dems from all sides. "
The Republicans have the Trinity of Tokenism: Sarah Palin, Bobby Jindal and Michael Steele. Then they have the Trinity of Lunatic Blowhards; Rush Limbaugh, Glenn Beck and Sean Hannity.
Needless to say, you people are going to cry for a very long time.
Big J| 4.2.09 @ 9:20AM
April 15th is right around the corner. I am considering penciling in "The Rangel Rule" or "The Geithner Clause" on my return.
Heard a good one the other day: "How do you get a Democrat to pay their taxes?" I don't know, how? "Nominate them to Obama's cabinet."
Indeed.
David Gonzalez| 4.2.09 @ 9:32AM
People, people, people---this "Mathews" character (if that's actually his name, which I doubt) is, likely, a paid shill assigned to this website (and, perhaps, others) to make mischief and cause disruption. RET probably won't ban him (because he's a fair-minded guy), so the best thing to do is to just ignore his schoolyard taunts until he gets bored and crawls back under the rock.
JAMES M| 4.2.09 @ 9:53AM
To Dave M
Why the don't you just SHUT THE HELL UP?!!
NOBODY cares what you have to say and this will be the ONLY time I reply to you. And I'm a Democrat!!!!
Kitty| 4.2.09 @ 9:54AM
David G, you're right about Mathews. Let's not forget that as Barry spreads misery, Mathews won't be spared.
...
Robert Rosencrans| 4.2.09 @ 9:54AM
In a Communist regime everything is owned by the state so there is no need for taxes. Taxes are voluntary, so if someone does not pay their income taxes, or other forms of taxes, then they must perceive the system as not representative of collective government, but simply representative of a political nuisance.
The Obama team does not consider the absence of paying taxes a liability, perceiving statism as their political reference point.
In fact, lying and political corruption permeate the Obama White House, reminiscent of the political mafia running the Russian politburo.
In essence, when you run a mafia operation, you do not look for honest or decent people. You reach out and establish a cabal of the politically and criminal elite, only too willing to push the agenda of fascism, which in it's final form, is the end of individualism and respect, and is the start of the ultimate political operation, fiefdoms and dictatorship.
dnicholson| 4.2.09 @ 10:06AM
Right on the money Mr. Gonzalez. Someone in another post claimed Mr. Mathews to be very intelligent-well who knows, because he never offers anything but bile and name calling. If and when he offers something solid, then maybe he can be engaged in a valid argument, but until then, who cares.............
Dustoff| 4.2.09 @ 10:19AM
Guys & Gals. David M goes by many names like say Texas2step and others, but you can usually tell it's him by the way he puts foward his questions... But I agree. LEAVE the fool alone.
Pingback| 4.2.09 @ 10:51AM
The American Spectator : Obama's Toxic Assets : PlanetTalk.net - Learn the truth , n links to this page. Here’s an excerpt:
Bram| 4.2.09 @ 11:07AM
The obvious answer is that the tax code is so complex, byzantine, and subject to interpretation that nobody can understand it. It is just bad government.
My biggest disappointment with the Republican controlled Congress of a few years ago was their failure to reform the tax code.
I just received my prepared taxes from my Accountant this morning - I will sign it, write the checks and mail them. I have an MBA and still cannot begin to understand the rules I am being subjected to.
Why not a simple, relatively flat income tax with no loopholes? Too obvious? Too many accountants and lawyers out of work?
Bram| 4.2.09 @ 11:16AM
I forgot to mention that I now owe my Accountant $400 for interpreting the tax rules and providing some legal shield against the IRS for me.
Eric Cartman | 4.2.09 @ 11:19AM
Dudes!
I can't believe it! I've been gone for only a few weeks and you let this fat hippy chick, David Mathews, to vomit stupid crap all over the board! Heed my warning, once you let one stupid, fat hippy chick on the board, other hippies will follow – dumb ass white guys with dreadlocks and Bob Marley hats. They will infest your neighborhoods. Then you know what you have? A music festival!
Listen, that stinky hippy, like all stinky hippies, only parrots what she was told in her freshman semester class in community college: Che Guevara for Dummies 101. Or worse, at the Rackham Social Science Graduate School at the University of Michigan. She gets her stipend from Gorge Soros or the DNC or Keith Olberturd’s dumpster to survive and pay for her granola cereal, trail mix, weed and Hippie Hippy Indian Water Buffalo Sandals! Then her and her ilk sit around their communal public housing tenement off State Street in Ann Arbor and infest discussion boards because they can’t get a job with their lousy degrees – not until Obama came along! Now they are on the verge of taking over!
Very soon, I warn you, Obama will mandate that we all buy our vegetables at a local co-op, and that is where you will find David Mathews and other fat hippy chicks! At places with names like The Chairman’s Little Red Book Community Co-op They will run the place – they will have to, since their boyfriends can’t hold down any jobs because they are too busy smoking pot and trying to finish the first chapter of their Eco Manifesto, “The Trees Are Crying!” (Can’t you understand, Babe! The world needs to hear what I have to say! This will be the male hippies’ plea to the females of the tribe! If you hear it, shoot the poor bastard – he’s too far gone at that point.)
I warn you here and now! Shun the fat hippie chick named David Mathews – and any other of her breed that may post here. The live on the blood and money of others! If you must see what your board will look like if you persist in letting this scum rest here, Google Detroit! See?! See what they bring! She must be captured, de-pierced, hosed down and scrubbed with a big soapy brush, forced to get a real job and ditch her hippy boyfriend! If she resists?! Well, I can only say that my services are expensive. I have only used the Hippy Driller once and many died. But I am willing to be hired again for this important mission. Damn you, hippies! I though I was out! But you always drag me back in!
Sadly, many innocent hippies will die along with the deranged, leftist community organizers. Those innocent souls who have been rendered harmless by years of Grateful Dead and Fish concerts and balloons of laughing gas and smoke tents. You will see their pathetic lives in what remains on ther bodies – bottles of patchouli oil, pot seeds in a plastic pill container, unused food stamps, old, unused rubbers (they had dreams, once) and underwear made from hemp (parts of them smoked). Both funny and pathetic, true - but the innocent always die in war.
So be warned! Banish the hippies from your midst or they will eat your seed corn; sleep in your garage; rummage through your rubbish; beg for change; fall asleep stoned behind the fertilizer spreader and smell up your garbage can area.
God Speed, posters. May you squash the stinky hippies before they skitter under the floorboards and infest your walls and drains. If you need me, you know where to find me – Eric Cartmen.
trapper| 4.2.09 @ 11:19AM
The IRS devises complicated demographic and financial formulas and profiles to identify those with a likelihood of tax non-compliance. Here is a simple formula: Examine wealthy democrats.
trapper| 4.2.09 @ 11:20AM
The IRS devises complicated demographic and financial formulas and profiles to identify those with a likelihood of tax non-compliance. Here is a simple formula: Examine wealthy democrats.
Big Leo| 4.2.09 @ 11:28AM
I must confess to profiting from the Obama disaster. A couple of weeks before the election when it became very likely that he would win, I put most of my retirement money in three gun and ammunition stocks. They've made out extremely well, doubling in one case. It was sort of like having all of your money in lifeboats on the Titanic.
Kent Lyon| 4.2.09 @ 11:55AM
Mr. Tyrell uses the wrong term, "Crony Capitalism." As per the article today by Quinn Hillyer, the correct term would be "Crony Fascism" except that that is probably redundant.
Ran| 4.2.09 @ 12:23PM
Mr Tyrrell,
Toxic assets? Sir, I hope we never experience Obama's toxic liabilities.
David Mathews | 4.2.09 @ 12:57PM
Hello Big Leo,
* "I must confess to profiting from the Obama disaster. A couple of weeks before the election when it became very likely that he would win, I put most of my retirement money in three gun and ammunition stocks. They've made out extremely well, doubling in one case. It was sort of like having all of your money in lifeboats on the Titanic. "
Oh, God ... a member of the Glenn Beck demographic!
Conservatives aren't getting any more intelligent and the Republican party isn't getting any more relevant.
Ran| 4.2.09 @ 1:14PM
Big Leo, excellent move.
About this "challenged" lad Mathews... Please let the little dog yap without response? Must we sniff under his tail? If we ignore it, it will get bored eventually and go back to playing with itself.
David Mathews | 4.2.09 @ 1:49PM
Hello Ran,
* "Must we sniff under his tail? "
You people would rather spend your time sniffing Rush Limbaugh's tail with its odor of cigars and oxycontin.
David Mathews | 4.2.09 @ 3:25PM
* "Did I advise conservatives to keep crying yet? "
I love the sound of conservatives crying in the morning, afternoon, evening and night. Conservatives should spend all of their time crying and most of them do.
Conservativism is politics for the uneducated!
defendUSA| 4.2.09 @ 4:46PM
Well, David M seems to be quite happy with himself and understands that as a liberal village idiot, he must impart Rush Limbaugh insults and use the term racist as well for those crying conservatives who didn't vote for the Citizen of the World. (the COW aka Obama.)
Angel| 4.2.09 @ 5:12PM
Jack, it's ridiculous to blame John McCain and the Republicans for Obama's victory. Put responsibility where it belongs: The people of the United States.
Trotter| 4.2.09 @ 5:48PM
"the Republican party isn't getting any more relevant"
You are obviously still getting paid to come on sites like this and act like a complete idiot (see: typical liberal). As such, someone at the posting seminar must sense some relevance.
Jim| 4.2.09 @ 9:00PM
Dave,
Is it that you aren't intelligent enough to offer something beyond the talk radio non-sense or is it that your controller sonly allow you to use this line of propaganda?
MT| 4.2.09 @ 10:18PM
Talk AROUND the jackass. Don't let 'it' interfere in our conservations.
darwin| 4.2.09 @ 11:53PM
Regarding tax pros, they will ask how much to push the limits on deductions, etc. The crooks leave out income (Daschle) or deduct things they shouldn't. In the end, it is the responsibility of the person signing the return, not the preparer.
If only we could starve this govt by ignoring the tax laws like the well connected pols.
Don L| 4.3.09 @ 5:47AM
I'd like to see any GOP member offer a bill or resolution requiring the cessation of punishment for any citizen who screws up on their taxes and only pays when caught. Why? We simply, in the words of John edwards, cannot have two Americas -one for the politikal klass and one for the common serfs.
JCH| 4.3.09 @ 12:09PM
Dave, I honestly didn't know that black Democrats like Al "MoFo" Sharpton had to pay taxes. Did you?
jaywhite| 4.5.09 @ 10:18AM
To David Mathews; Get the R word ready!
Is it ready?: The zero is the worse president by far in US history. He is Jimmy Carter but worse by a factor of ten. It's like having a child run the country.
You can use the R word 1000 times now.
Why don't you add your other pet lines "Conservatives ... cry blah blah etc"
jaywhite| 4.5.09 @ 10:25AM
I have an idea for a new anti illicit drug use public service announcement.
(Picture of a brain), Announcer :"This is your brain."
(Picture of David Mathews) Announcer: "This is your brain on drugs. "
hgjhg| 11.30.09 @ 3:54AM
TOD Converter Mac,
TOD File Converter Mac
jghjhg| 11.30.09 @ 10:08PM
iPod Touch Converter for Mac,
DVD to iPod Touch Converter for Mac