Posted on 01/13/2009 11:54:52 AM PST by abb
Edited on 01/13/2009 1:59:05 PM PST by Admin Moderator. [history]
Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is raising questions about a housekeeper that worked briefly for Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner without proper immigration papers, and multiple years when Mr. Geithner didn't pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself.
(Excerpt) Read more at online.wsj.com ...
For a second there my hopes were barely raised above zero that a Republican might say something, but it was a Democrat huh?
Chuck’s up from his nap.
I’m glad I don’t have a housekeeper.
They seem to cause MORE trouble for people.
lol
great. Now obama can withdraw his nomination and put Ron Paul up to be treasury secretary. Then the term TARP would return to its traditional definition.
So this is the guy that’s the touted financial genius. Can’t even correctly file his own taxes. Nice. I bet they confirm him anyway, because he paid the taxes once it was “brought to his attention.” I’m also betting we’re going to have at least one senator say something along the lines of “We have to confirm him, regardless of this information. The financial crisis is too great, and we must have his leadership.”
Democratic senators plan to defend Mr. Geithner, saying that the nature of the complaints pale in comparison to the gravity of the crises he has been asked to face, a severe economic recession, turmoil in the financial markets and the collapse of the U.S. auto industry.
“Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is raising questions about a housekeeper that worked briefly for Treasury Secretary-nominee Timothy Geithner without proper immigration papers, and multiple years when Mr. Geithner didn’t pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself.”
Have you noticed the people in charge of our economy, enforcing our laws,etc. care so little that they won’t hire an American or obey our laws....besides being cheap and greedy!
Doesn’t matter - he is a Democrat nominee.
Geithner should have just gotten a sweetheart Countrywide mortgage and paid for a documented housekeeper with the savings. That would not be a problem if Chris Dodd is any example.
Why not simply apply to the Secretary-designate the rules the Department of the Treasury applies to civil servants? Oh, I forgot, that would require the Secretary-designate pack his bags and head home.
Payroll taxes are just for the “little people” you know.
Wall Street and all the other politically connected big wigs approve, therefore he will be confirmed.
Why do the Pubbies tip toe through the tulips? If it was reversed, the Rats would wait till the public hearing, then have a humiliating lynching!
Jeeezzzz...read the first sentence: "Sen. Charles E. Grassley, ranking Republican on the Senate Finance Committee, is raising questions..."
The knee-jerk blame-Republicans-all-the-time crap around here these days is sickening.
An obituary
The American Revolution was an extraordinary event. The idea that freedom was an inherent right, that tyranny could be successfully opposed, that government could serve the people, not the few, was truly revolutionary in 1776—as it is today.
The American Revolution, however, has run its course; and unless resuscitated and given new life, the American dream and the dreams of America’s founding fathers will soon be only a memory. Dreams rarely come to pass and those that do rarely last. The American dream is no exception.
What happened in 1776 has been subverted by the passage of time and the inconstancy of later generations. Those who rule America today have subverted the principles enumerated in the US Constitution; principles the Founding Father hoped would guide those who followed them through the crises yet to come.
The principles were not many, e.g. fiscal prudence, sound money, separation of church and state and a limited military and limited government. But even those few and clearly stated principles succumbed over the years to the imposition of policies that had given rise to the need to revolt in 1776.
Now, in 2008, tyranny and government excesses are again upon America, but this time it is by America’s own hand. The policies of King George III were no more egregious than the policies of President George Bush II.— taxation without real representation, e.g. TARP (80 % Americans opposed), the imposition of policies contrary to the will of the people, e.g. US presence in Iraq and Afghanistan (70 % opposed), and the loss of individual freedoms under the Patriot Act (60 % opposed).
The difference between 1776 and 2008 is that America is now tyrannized not by the King of England but by its own government. Today, the US government does not represent the will of the people. It represents instead the special interests that control the US government through the buying of votes—America is not for sale only because it has already been sold.
The difference between 1776 and 2008 is not only 232 years. It is the difference between the dream of the Founding Fathers and the shadow of that dream in whose increasing darkness Americans now exist.
THE FEDERAL RESERVE BANK IS THE REASON FOR AMERICA’S
FALL FROM POWER AND THE SOURCE OF ITS INCREASING PROBLEMS
Thomas Jefferson warned 200 hundred years ago that if private bankers were allowed to issue America’s money, indebtedness, foreclosure and suffering would follow. Yet, in 1913, private bankers gained control over America’s money by the passage of the Federal Reserve Act.
We are now suffering for ignoring Jefferson’s warnings. Jefferson was right in predicting our problems but his words were overridden by those who had other plans for America, plans that would increase their profits at the expense of the nation.
It is no accident America is now an empty shell of the great economic power it once was. Bled dry by debt imposed by those whose sole intent was to profit, the US is now bankrupt at a time it desperately needs the resources it no longer has.
The US Treasury is now empty except for IOUs and only if others continue to buy America’s debts can America continue to go forward. Once we were creditors, now we are debtors. America cannot escape the consequences of what has been done but we can limit our problems if we undo their cause.
The Federal Reserve Act was enacted by Congress and signed into law by President Woodrow Wilson who later bitterly regretted what he had done to America.
I am a most unhappy man. I have unwittingly ruined my country. A great industrial nation is controlled by its system of credit. Our system of credit is concentrated. The growth of the nation, therefore, and all our activities are in the hands of a few men. We have come to be one of the worst ruled, one of the most completely controlled and dominated Governments in the civilized world no longer a Government by free opinion, no longer a Government by conviction and the vote of the majority, but a Government by the opinion and duress of a small group of dominant men.
Woodrow Wilson, US President
The power of the Federal Reserve System—a system controlled by a small group of dominant men—derives solely from is power to issue debt-based money in the form of US dollars and to charge interest on their issuance. We are paying our jailors for our enslavement and are fools for so doing. Who would have thought—except Jefferson.
The Money Masters - How International Bankers Gained Control of America
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=-515319560256183936&hl=en
Him? Is he still a Republican?
My mother used to clean houses, part time, under the table, after she retired. She worked for a prominent lawyer in the area who evidently had political ambitions.
My mother just wanted a few extra bucks without bother of taxes but this was back when everyone was all over the place with all those nannies and such. The Dems jumped on everyone with a closet Nanny/housekeeper.
So this lawyer turned over all the wages he paid my mother into the gubmint and the poor women like to be run to the poor house. First, her pathetic wages were added on TOP of her husband’s wages. At that time their taxes were high. THEN she had to pay, get this, 15.2% FICA taxes because, remember, my mother was a so-called “independent contractor” and had to pay her own FICA. Also bear in mind that the rate she charged this lawyer was low specifically BECAUSE it was not taxed. After he turned her in she had no choice and essentially worked for LESS than minimum wage.
All this for about $25.00 for four hours cleaning a house, this a 60 year old woman. I swear it caused her to die before she was ready.
But hey, that lawyer was covered and got to run for his precious office, which he never won.
But hey yeah, they killed my poor mother over this big nothing. Give the Democrats hell over it.
This emphasizes what a complete pile of crap the tax code is. If a potential treasury secretary can’t get it right, who can? I don’t think the guy was trying to evade the tax.
We are fools!
No worries. Bloomberg just reported that Orrin Hatch has met with him and voiced continued support.
Doesn’t matter - he is a Democrat nominee.
Not only that, and I’m so mad about this I can hardly think. I just saw Senator Judd Gregg (R) on Cavuto and he thinks they are playing gotcha politics on Geithner. He said that once he found out about the taxes he paid them. Is that like as soon as they catch you robbing a bank you pay the money back? I sent that Gregg an email telling him what I thought and maybe I wouldn’t pay my taxes and when I got caught I would pay them telling them I was just doing what he said should be fine. These politicians think the laws don’t apply to them. He thinks Geithner will make a good Treasury guy and this shouldn’t matter.
Glad the Republicans are looking out for the party.
Errrrrrrrrrrr!!!!!!!!!!!!!
Oh, puhleeese. Your bait-and-switch tactics are tiresome. First you bitch that no Republican did anything. Then, when your attention is called to the first sentence of the posted article, you bitch that Grassley isn't a Republican.
To people like you, there is no such thing as a Republican. Only whatever brand of pseudo-conservative your type claims to be counts in your world.
I am waiting for the Republicans to actively oppose something the Democrats want.
Baucus says that Geithner accidentally didn’t pay 40k in taxes. That is an indictment of Geithner, the tax system, or both.
Baucus says this “accident” is serious but doesn’t disqualify him. If they approve him because he “accidentally” screwed up his taxes - this the so-called sharpest economic tool in the shed - then the gov’t admits that its tax system is so fouled up as to be insupportable.
If I were anybod called into court about taxes from then on, I would point to Geithner as evidence that even the Congress that wrote the laws admits that they cannot be reasonably interpreted.
This government is just plain evil. They take 40-50% of people’s income and their families have to do without. Give you an example, when you buy a loaf of bread at the store, it’s been taxed over a hundred times. Then the social security comes out of my check which is 8%. My company pays the other 8%. If the government would have let me kept my money, I could have invested it at 4-5% a year, I would have over a million dollars. What does the government do with all that money that people don’t collect? Like my sister, that worked all of her life and never collected one social security check. She died at 55 with no children.
But its Free Trade 1/3 of the cars made in the U.S are made up of goverment taxs and regulations. THis f-——g goverment now take them over ,
don,t take my word for it watch this
we how have taxation without representation
http://video.google.com/videoplay?docid=1590858026591557284
Why don’t these people draw up contractors with independent cleaners rather than hire employees?
I just don’t understand it.
Although I wouldn't use the word "evil" to describe it, I agree with your point 100%. The idea that federal, state and local governments combined would take about 40% off the top of most people's income would have been totally anathema to the Founding Fathers. Further, as you state so well, they take more in various property and sales taxes, "fees", and so on. If it were possible to add all the taxes and "fees" up, I'd be surprised if about 75% of the average person's income doesn't go to taxes of one sort or another. Yet government -- again federal, state and local -- never stops sucking the people dry while providing very little in return.
“Baucus says that Geithner accidentally didn’t pay 40k in taxes.”
I’m not sure how this could happen. It’s hard to believe the guy does his own taxes. He might be like me and use tax preparation software like Turbo-Tax. But I can guarantee that TT would have correctly calculated any unpaid self-employment taxes and added them to the tab. If the guy used a professional tax preparer, the error is even less defensible.
So I’m not saying the guy automatically is a crook just because he’s a Democrat, but it seems like there’s something here that doesn’t miss the sniff test.
He uses the same tax preparer as Charlie Rangel. The Culture of Corruption at its best!
I guess you have never been self employed. My wife and I have been paying this tax for YEARS. Fortunately she has had an S Corp for more than five years which helps.
Pity about your mom, but you seem a bit sheltered. Not meant to be offensive, just instructional.
Happy new year!
When his lips move, only then can you tell he lying.
My worthless sENIOR sENATOR.
Dear Lord....I’ve been self-employed for most of my life.
Didn’t see the need for an insult. Most folks are used to (and tend to gripe about) paying 7.65% out of their paycheck so I wanted to emphasize that my mother had to pay the self-employment rate ON TOP of the 30% tax bracket she was in at the time.
Been doing payroll for 30 years...wrote a book about it.
You sure picked the wrong person to call sheltered.
But you impressed everyone all to hell with your level of sophistication.
Yes, he was impressive, wasn’t he?
There’s one in every crowd.
;)
Reid would be Yelling Corruption if this was a Repub appointment.
I'm at my brink over the Repubs, F_N COWARDS!(_&!@(*_@&(^@_$&
Amazing. What sort of excuse could he have for that? Did he just not work for three years? And how did he get his job with the Fed without that point coming up?
The tax code is a pile of crap, specially designed to keep accountants and IRS inspectors busy and the countries fiscal priorities f***ed up, but it still boggles the mind how someone with this fellow’s reputed competency—someone who’s supposed to bail the rest of the country out—can’t file for an extension or hire someone to figure out his finances—and it’s just coming out now. That fact in combination with the acronym ‘IMF’ raises some serious questions.
blah, blah, blah.
This clown would have know he owes money right after his audit in 2006. Unless he used Charlie Rangel’s tax man.
Ouote: “...Not meant to be offensive...”
I wasn’t aware of all the details when I made my original post. The guy was either deliberately evading taxes or incompetent. He should be thrown under the bus in either case, but the Republicans look like they have been deballed and won’t offer much opposition.
“He uses the same tax preparer as Charlie Rangel.”
Wow! I would say that speaks volumes about motivation/intent. If I wanted my taxes prepared honestly, I believe that making use of Charlie Rangel’s accountant would be the furthest thing from my mind.
“Although I wouldn’t use the word “evil” to describe it, I agree with your point 100%. The idea that federal, state and local governments combined would take about 40% off the top of most people’s income would have been totally anathema to the Founding Fathers. Further, as you state so well, they take more in various property and sales taxes, “fees”, and so on. If it were possible to add all the taxes and “fees” up, I’d be surprised if about 75% of the average person’s income doesn’t go to taxes of one sort or another. Yet government — again federal, state and local — never stops sucking the people dry while providing very little in return.”
Now I know why I feel so broke all the time.
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