The Department of the Treasury has jurisdiction over the IRS. The defenders of Geithner are out in force today marketing an “honest and simple mistake” talking point today. Get used to hearing those words.

If I don’t pay tax on all of my income - that could be an oversight, or it could be that I thought I’d get away with it and so I didn’t report it all. If I get caught - shame on me - I get to pay the penalties along with the tax. (I’m all for ’sticking it to the man’ and letting him show me that I underpaid - they steal enough as it is). If he just ‘misplaced’ a thousand here or there, it’s understandable - accountants do it sometimes.

If I don’t pay ANY taxes - that’s not an oversight - that’s an intentional attempt to get out of my responsibility of paying because I believe that I won’t get caught AND (fill in your rationalization of choice). That’s not a matter of, “Oh my, I should have known better.” I’m sure that if he was self-employed, Geithner didn’t fill out all those tax forms himself anyway - so, we must assume that his accountant definitely DID know better.

In either case - if he’s on the WE NEED BIG GOVERNMENT - we NEED ALL THE TAXES WE CAN GET - then he’s (at best) a hypocrite, and ethically bankrupt - but, I’d argue that his implementation was competent (well, except he got caught).

What if Bush had done it?

Or how long would a Bush appointee survive this?

“… the graceful thing, and he stepped down,” Sen. Joe Biden, a Delaware Democrat, said on CNN’s “Late Edition.” “And so I am not going to add to the speculation as to whether there may have been other things. The nanny thing was enough all by itself.”

You ask who are they talking about? Bernie Kerik.

It seems to me Kerik has many of the same problems and was flayed by Democrats, repeatedly. Yet we stand for these excuses in the interest of…what?

Once again there is a double standard at work, yet we should “all get along in the interest of the country” now? I don’t think so when Democrats have in the past termed this “disqualifying behavior”.

Where are our leaders speaking our on this? Oh, almost forgot, McConnell is a behind the scenes guy and Boehner…is he still in DC?

at it’s best. The talk on one hand, the walk on another, the insanity in between. Rest assured the left really would be furious were this a Republican appointment, not an act but actual anger. Change parties and it’s not worth a deep sigh, such typical contradiction must be, has to be, the spillage of disordered minds.

Speaking of which, so far the Big Bam seems to be eminently untroubled by this. But then he was untroubled by Bill Ayers who did more than dodge taxes.

So far I think I’ve heard “honest mistake” about thirty times from the media, our adversary, watchdog press. Barf !

Might not have paid them on time, it’s a hard thing to do with small SPs, but Joe and every other tradesman or entrepreneur in America knows he has to pay taxes and SS. It is an outright, bald-faced lie that this scumbag didn’t pay taxes on that income because of an oversight or a “hiccup.” LYING LIARS!

Despite the disclosures, several committee Republicans appeared to be leaning toward backing Geithner. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah called the tax problems “a mistake that a human being can make.”

“I’m confident in the man’s ability. I think he’s a very fine man. I’m not one that holds mistakes against people,” Hatch said.

Sen. John Ensign, R-Nev., who said he spoke with Geithner for about a half-hour Wednesday morning, said he didn’t foresee trouble for the nominee.

“I don’t think I see enough in there to cause a problem,” Ensign said. “It’s very, very easy to make honest mistakes.”

Sen. Pat Roberts, R-Kan., said he’d probably vote to confirm Geithner.

“I think he’s a good man. I had a long visit with him,” Roberts said. “I think he really knows his stuff.”

How is it a mistake if you have to lie on your tax forms to fall into it? And if the guy really didn’t know any better, how is he qualified to run Treasury? A guy who can’t even prepare his own income tax return?

Here’s our own Orrin Hatch (R-UT) weighing in on the subject. Remember, he also said that he thinks Eric Holder is a “…fine man” who should be confirmed as Attorney General. With republican jerks like these, who needs the democrats? Please note the quotes below:

“Despite the disclosures, several committee Republicans appeared to be leaning toward backing Geithner. Sen. Orrin G. Hatch of Utah called the tax problems ‘a mistake that a human being can make.’

‘I’m confident in the man’s ability. I think he’s a very fine man. I’m not one that holds mistakes against people,’ Hatch said.”

Well, I certainly hope we will remember, and hold these “mistakes” against Hatch when it comes time for re-election

SLOPPY. No intent, Just. SLOPPY.

Liberals are so dishonest

The Democratic excuse is that he’s too stupid to do his taxes correctly and we shouldn’t hold that against him.

The Republican excuse is that anybody else Obama would name instead would probably be even worse.

So he’ll receive near unanimous confirmation. Is this a great country or what?

I love Orrin Hatch, for whom I worked back in the 1980s, and who is simply an irrepressibly nice man.

But putting that aside, let’s clear up this “honest mistake” thing once and for all. I’ve known people who have worked for the IMF as well as people who have lived and worked overseas. If they are ignorant of the tax ramifications of their conditions of employment, it is because they are willfully so.

Believe me, Geithner had plenty of advice on his tax status, and if he didn’t, he knew where to get it.

And no nominee to date who had a nanny tax issue — even in the Clinton Administration — has gotten away with it and been nominated.

When it comes to the guy who will be overseeing the Internal Revenue Service, ignorance of the tax laws — willful or ortherwise — is a disqualification for employment. Period.

What’s this all about? I get my news from Brian Williams on NBC, and he never mentioned this. Are you telling me that the Washington politicians on both sides of the aisle think it’s no big deal that a nominee for Treasury Secretary didn’t pay his taxes? And that a major news network didn’t even think it was worth telling the public about?

Why should ordinary citizens pay taxes if the politicians aren’t going to pay theirs? They don’t think this is a big deal? They don’t think telling the public that not paying your taxes is ok?

Either he’s ignorant of self-employment tax, he’s a liar who was attempting to get away with it or he simply can’t ensure the people handling money for him are competent. Whichever, he’s not qualified to run a company treasury much less the country’s treasury.

http://www.politico.com/news/stories/0109/17463.html

Whoever has his enemy at his mercy &
does not destroy him is his own enemy