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Nov. 23, 2009
JWisdom.com: Actually, it really is all about you with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff
Nov. 20, 2009
Rabbi David Aaron: How to make every second of your life come first
Caroline B. Glick: Whither American Jewry
Nov. 19, 2009
Binyamin L. Jolkovsky: Please Listen to this Godcast (5 minutes)
Jonathan Tobin: ADL Crosses the Line with Report Bashing Obama Critics
Nov. 18, 2009
Rabbi Yonason Goldson: What Judaism has to say about the secret of the Mona Lisa's smile
JWisdom.com: The (Jewish) Dating Game with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (8 minutes)
Nov. 17, 2009
Steven Emerson: How Does the 4th Amendment Impact Terror Finance Investigations?
JWisdom.com: If Frank Sinatra married Edith Piaf with Rabbi Y.Y. Rubinstein (2 minutes) Life lessons from what would be regarded as the most inappropriate lyrics ever sung
Nov. 16, 2009
The Jewish Ethicist by Rabbi Dr. Asher Meir : When borrowing is stealing
JWisdom.com: Deconstructing faith with Rabbi Warren Goldstein (9 minutes)
Nov. 13, 2009
JWisdom.com Sarah's subjective reality with Rabbi Sroy Levitansky ( 6 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick: Obama's failure, Netanyahu's opportunity
Nov. 12, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet By Marialisa Calta : A sweet sweet potato treat
JWisdom.com Does God get tired? with Rabbi Harvey Belovski ( 5 minutes)
Nov. 11, 2009
Rabbi Avi Shafran: Jews and money: When anti-Semitism isn't
JWisdom.com Marriages are not made in Heaven with Rabbi Lawrence Hajioff (VERY fast 15 minutes)
Nov. 10, 2009
Michael Doyle: Author of book exposing CAIR ordered to remove supporting documents from Web
JWisdom.com If the creation so loudly shouts the existence of the Creator, why aren't more people believers? with Rabbi Naftali Brawer (9 minutes)
Nov. 9, 2009
Mark Steyn: Shooter exposes hole in U.S. terror strategy
JWisdom.com It's never too late to have a happy childhood with Sarah Chana Radcliffe (5 minutes)
Nov. 6, 2009
Rabbi Berel Wein: Choosing to hear
JWisdom.com Zero to 1/60th: How to Empower An Hour with Gavriel Aryeh Sande (7 minutes)
Caroline B. Glick The mullahs' big week
Suzanne Fields A Fallen Wall for Fallen Man
Nov. 5, 2009
The Kosher Gourmet: Three scrumptious -- but simple -- butternut squash dishes
JWisdom.com Hidden Hints: Unlocking Faith & Prayer with Rabbi Jay Yaacov Schwartz (10 minutes)
Nov. 4, 2009
Tom Hamburger and Kim Geiger: Should prayers be covered?
JWisdom.com When God played peacemaker With Rabbi Sroy Levitansky (5 minutes)
Nov. 3, 2009
Martin Peretz: Beware, Barack. Beware, Rahm. Beware, Axelrod
JWisdom.com Are you are closet idolater? With Sara Yoheved Rigler (10 minutes)
Nov. 2, 2009
Paul Greenberg: The Holocaust is now on Facebook
JWisdom.com Abraham's Strange Change With Rabbi Yitzchok Fingerer (5 minutes)
Oct. 29, 2003
Mortimer B. Zuckerman: Graffiti On History's Walls (MUST-READ!)

Jewish World Review April 2, 2009 / 8 Nisan 5769

Capitol Hill's New Role of Tax Collector

By Bob Tyrrell


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http://www.JewishWorldReview.com | It has happened again! Another Obama nominee 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. 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 those 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 the nominees began making preparations for their confirmation hearings. Others who have benefited the U.S. Treasury by submitting to confirmation hearings include former New York Fed President 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 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 representative.


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 was 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, who withdrew his nomination to head Health and Human Services after it was discovered that he owed $140,000 in taxes and interest. Daschle also became 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, who is the governor of New Mexico and was 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 huge companies bidding on the toxic assets and managing them. The Journal was too polite to bring up the term "crony capitalism," but it did speak of the possibility that these few firms will reap 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 editorialized, "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 the Hill's hygienic effect on Obama nominees.

Every weekday JewishWorldReview.com publishes what many in the media and Washington consider "must-reading". Sign up for the daily JWR update. It's free. Just click here.

JWR contributor Bob Tyrrell is editor in chief of The American Spectator. Comment by clicking here.

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