A plague o' both your houses

Amended February 5, 2009 at 1:07 pm.

The confirmation process for Democrat nominees of the Obama administration has demonstrated that three have had minor to sever conflicts with the IRS. Members of the Senate from both parties are missing the main points, and as Mercutio curses the families whose feuding cost him his life, I write, "a plague o' both your houses."

A plague o' the Democrats for continuing to support high tax rates that they try to avoid. It's not the attempt to avoid taxes, that's the duty of every good American; it's the moralizing about the duty of upper income American's to pay more taxes that irks me. For the record, I am not near the top tax bracket although I would love to be. Jonah Goldberg in Democrats are hypocrites when it comes to paying taxes writes of a particularly ironic example of such language.

Now, whatever the best articulation of liberal attitudes toward taxation may be, reasonable people can agree that they inject a lot of moralizing, righteousness and finger-wagging into the issue. As one leading Democrat put it: "Make no mistake, tax cheaters cheat us all, and the IRS should enforce our laws to the letter. That Democrat was then-Sen. Tom Daschle in 1998. The same Tom Daschle, we've since learned, who failed to pay more than $100,000 in back taxes...

A plague o’ the Republicans for playing gotcha politics rather than dealing with the real issue--high tax rates and a cumbersome tax code. Apparently, they believe that shooting down Obama nominees as tax cheats is more meaningful to than using these travails as justification for tax reform that they say they have supported for years.

The Republicans in Congress should do as they preach, and try to introduce real tax reform. They could have started by asking Mr. Daschle if his experience with the IRS has given him some insight into the complaints about high taxes by many Americans.

Since when did Republicans trust the IRS? For that matter, Democrats often complain about abusive IRS tactics. Many Republicans support a "fair" tax that would eliminate the IRS in part because they do not like their power. Now the IRS is a trusted institution whose judgements are beyond scrutiny.

I have put a little background information about the nominees and their tax problems beginning with Timothy Geithner. He survived the confirmation process and is now the Secretary of the Treasury. As an aside, I like the idea of a Secretary of the Treasury who has had a run in with the IRS and believe that this is fundamentally sound training for the job. The Wall Street Journal describes his tax problems in an article written by Jonathan Weisman and titled, "Geithner's Tax History Muddles Confirmation."

The tax issue relates to Mr. Geithner's work for the International Monetary Fund between 2001 and 2004. As an American citizen working for the IMF, Mr. Geithner was technically considered self-employed and was required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as both an employer and an employee.

In 2006, the IRS audited Mr. Geithner's 2003 and 2004 taxes and concluded he owed taxes and interest totaling $17,230, according to documents released by the Senate Finance Committee. The IRS waived the related penalties.

Tom Daschle's problems seem a little worse in size and nature. They are described by the Internet Free News, in an article titled, "Tom Daschle Withdraws As Nominee For HHS," in these terms,

Daschle, a former Senate majority leader, had come under pressure since Friday, when it was reported that he did not pay $146,000 in back taxes, primarily for the use of a car and driver given to him by an associate. He met Monday with members of the Senate Finance Committee to explain the omission and apologized. Some Republicans had questioned whether the nomination should go forward, and his confirmation vote had been postponed until at least the middle of next week.

Killefer's tax problems are insignificant in size, less than $1,000 including penalties of $600. It saddens me that a qualified candidate must resign over a paltry sum. Michael Sniffen and Liz Sidoti, Writing for the AP in an article titled, "Official: Obama's performance czar, facing tax questions, withdraws candidacy," writes,

When Killefer's selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.

That sum included $298 in unpaid taxes, $48.69 in interest and $600 in penalties. The lien was filed March 7, 2005, but Killefer didn't get the lien extinguished for almost five months, not until July 29.