The American Spectator : The Spectacle Blog : Lookin' Bad, Timothy!

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Lookin' Bad, Timothy!

By Doug Bandow on 1.15.09 @ 1:14PM

The Washington Examiner points to evidence that Treasury nominee Timothy Geithner was reimbursed by the IMF for taxes that he never paid. Explains the Examiner:

Timothy Geithner, President-elect Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary, says he didn't pay his federal self-employment taxes for four years because he "forgot." That is no longer a credible explanation in view of today's reporting by National Review's Byron York. Geithner accepted reimbursement from the International Monetary Fund specifically to cover federal taxes totaling $42,702 he had not paid, according to Senate confirmation documents examined by York.

This is damning because on the IMF's Annual Tax Allowance Request, Geithner promised to "pay the taxes for which I have received tax allowance payments..." In truth, he didn't pay those taxes until it was brought to his attention, first by the IRS in 2006, and now as part of the vetting process for his Treasury nomination.

This makes Geithner's behavior look substantially more culpable and far more embarrassing for President-elect Barack Obama. On the plus side, it's hard to see Secretary Geithner, who appeared to take his own private tax cut, lobby Congress to raise rates on the rest of us!

View all comments (13) | Leave a comment

james23| 1.15.09 @ 1:38PM

Bet you a beer this skunk also failed to report the SE tax Reimbursement check as income on his 1040 the following year.

ruth| 1.15.09 @ 2:19PM

This man is supposed to be our economic savior, the smartest man in the world, and the clown screws up his own taxes? Does Obama even vet his nominees or does he think we just won't notice? I don't know what defines democrats more; corruption or stupidity.

J David| 1.15.09 @ 2:22PM

Sorta makes the collaborator RINOs sticking up for him in Congress look like FOOLS and TOOLS.

Alas, we are betrayed!

ruth| 1.15.09 @ 2:22PM

Where's Interloper's rabid defense of this new Obama scandal? Poor guy, must be exhausted.

ConservativeWanderer| 1.15.09 @ 6:18PM

Ruth, I kinda wonder if Interloper didn't get hit on the head with the AmSpec Ban Hammer.

ruth| 1.15.09 @ 6:23PM

CW, me too. Good riddance.

brant| 1.15.09 @ 8:00PM

Most respectable citizens would be ashamed to show their faces in public if they were exposed doing something like this. Many organizations would fire a manager or administrator who displayed such dishonesty.

I can't believe Sandy Berger (burglar), Bill Clinton, Al Sharpton, Jesse Jackson etc. etc. would even show their faces after all they've been exposed doing.

Kat| 1.15.09 @ 8:06PM

Scoundrels (liberals) have no shame.

iamse7en| 1.15.09 @ 8:22PM

But the drive-bys already reported on this: It was an "honest mistake!"

Hahaha... This whole thing just gets funnier as the days roll by.

Alan Brooks| 1.15.09 @ 10:08PM

youre surprised? i saw this two years ago-- not that it takes a crystal ball or alvin toffler.

hints:
its a brave new world.
newspeak

Alan Brooks| 1.15.09 @ 11:23PM

the crimes they are a changin'
come senators congressmen
please lead the call
dont stand in the doorway
dont block up the hall
for the first one now will later be last

ConservativeWanderer| 1.16.09 @ 8:13AM

Ruth, Interloper did perform a valuable service, even if he didn't realize it.

Every time he or one of his little lefty friends starts trying to declare that "x story is a whole lot of nothing," I take it to mean that the author scored a point. Their defensive reaction demonstrates it quite well.

Or, to put it in simpler terms, "a stuck pig squeals." Interloper was a good barometer of the squeals of the left.