Tax Day Weekend Header

Going with the new "Tax day weekend" header, featuring "A Tale of Four Tax Cheats".

One of these four men is going to jail for three years for not paying his taxes. (The other three are politicians.)

New York Times Calls for Daschle to Step Aside

When you're a liberal and the NYT throws you under the bus...
...you know it's time to go!

When President Obama nominated former Senator Tom Daschle to be his secretary of health and human services, it seemed to be a good choice. Mr. Daschle, as the co-author of a book on health care reform, knew a lot about one of the president’s signature issues. As a former Senate majority leader, he also knew a lot about guiding controversial bills through Congress, where he remains liked and respected by former colleagues.

Unfortunately, new facts have come to light — involving his failure to pay substantial taxes that were owed and his sizable income from health-related companies while he worked in the private sector — that call into question his suitability for the job. We believe that Mr. Daschle ought to step aside and let the president choose a less-blemished successor.

"Less blemished successor"? Oooh! That's going to leave a mark!

Hat tip Byron York
Cross Posted at Say Anything

Bonus Quote du jour

“Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter. ”

-Sen. Tom Daschle, Congressional Record, May 7, 1998, p. S4507.

Daschle's Tax Problems Worse Than First Reported

IN the words of a Stan Freberg song, "It seems they've uncovered as much as they can...
unless they decide to dig deeper!"

In addition to the services of a car and driver that former Tom Daschle failed to report as income, is an $83, 333 consulting fee from 2007 that just must have slipped his mind! (Or maybe Timothy Geithner was his tax advisor?)

ABC News has obtained the Senate Finance Committee Report on Tom Daschle's nomination to be Secretary of the Department of Health and Human Services, which indicates that Daschle's tax problems were even more substantial than earlier reported.

The report indicates that Daschle's failure to pay more than $101,000 taxes on the car and driver a wealthy friend let him use from 2005 through 2007 is not the only tax issue the former Senate Majority Leader has been dealing with since his December nomination prompted a more thorough examination of his income tax returns.

Mr. Daschle also didn't report $83,333 in consulting income in 2007.

And remember those private jets that marked auto execs as unfeeling, uncaring wasteful jerks? Guess who may not have reported his own private jet jaunts as income?

...The Finance Committee staff still is reviewing whether travel and entertainment services provided Tom and Linda Daschle by EduCap, Inc., Catherine B. Reynolds Foundation, Academy Achievement, and Loan to Learn should be reported as income. Earlier this month, the Wall Street Journal reported that Daschle made use of the jet belonging to EduCap, a non-profit student loan organization.

It may be that Obama's plan to rescue the country from financial misconduct is to gather all the miscreants in one place where he can keep his eye on them! Heh.

Hat tip My Pet Jawa
Cross Posted at Say Anything