Posted on 01/30/2009 3:57:40 PM PST by MindBender26
Bumps in the Road: Obama's HHS Secretary Nominee Faces Tax Questions Over Car and Driver
ABC News has learned that the nomination of former Senator Majority Leader Tom Daschle, D-S.D., to be President Obama's Secretary of Health and Human Services has hit a traffic snarl on its way through the Senate Finance Committee.
The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend, a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring it on his taxes.
After being defeated in his 2004 re-election campaign to the Senate, Daschle in 2005 became a consultant and chairman of the Executive Advisory Board at InterMedia Advisors.
Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery,
That same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia 2005, Daschle began using the services of Hindery's car and driver.
The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia but Mr. Daschle -- who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense -- didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require.
During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.
Daschle reimbursed the IRS $31,462 in taxes and interest for tax year 2005; $35,546 for 2006; and $34,935, for 2007.
The chairman of the Senate Finance Committee, Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., has called his colleagues for a private meeting at 5 p.m. ET Monday to discuss these complications surrounding Daschle's nomination.
(Excerpt) Read more at blogs.abcnews.com ...
This is soooo easily fixed.
1. Daschle just needs to write a “phoney-kinda looks real” check made out to the IRS, for the amount stolen (I mean owed).
2. Post dated to the time when he owed the money.
3. Get an image of the “check” posted at Factcheck.org. (important step!)
4. When questioned about the issue, point to the image posted at Factcheck.org. Have a sincere look on your face when pointing it out. I mean it is proof after all! (This also includes when being questioned by a court or the American taxpayers)
5. Oh I almost forgot, get some fancy pants, unethical lawyers to answer the questions for you. You wouldn’t want to get your hands dirty with something this trivial.
Just remember that the above precedent has been set, so in theory it should work.
I was self employed for 20 years until I got sick ( occupation related). Income up and down due to injuries from work. Every dime I could save during those years was for Taxes. Seems like they knew just how much I could save and thats what they took. When my health collapsed I was forced into using what I had saved for taxes to pay for Medical care. Lost everything, wife included. Had to hire a tax lawyer to keep them from coming after what little I have left to survive on.
Guess I should have been a Democrat.
now that's what i call transparency!
Just another example of (Income Tax Evasion) an honest mistake, perhaps a dumb mistake, but an innocent and unintentional mistake of the sort anyone could make.
So many Dawns.... so little time....
:`)
Hmmn? If it is in their DNA, then why is it a reach?:)
There's no way they can get a bill to the floor of the House with Pelosi in charge. But nothing stops them from introducing a "Rangel" bill and sending letters to all House Democrats requesting support on the bill. At election time, an ad can be run in all Democrat districts showing that the Democrats refused to support a bill giving the voters equal standing with Democrat politicians before the IRS.
Well, WELL! Another Demoncrap tax cheat.
When you sign that voter registration card, they never tell you about the special Dem tax breaks. But I guess if you’re born Dem, you know.
You sound like you had a terrible thing happen to you and you sure have my sympathies. It’s true, the IRS can drive you into the ground if you are self-employed. It’s almost like there is a special tax policy for people like us. Personally, I think it’s because we’re easy marks, generally honest, they know that we don’t have a legal staff, and we’re busy with our businesses.
On the other hand, people who suck at the government teat (the case of most Dems, who are frequently civil servants if not Senators) are accustomed to never having to pay for anything and never receiving any penalty for their behavior.
Not only are there tax issues. Daschle’s lobbying firm represents those in the health care industry. (Isn’t there supposed to be a ban on lobbyists - oh, that’s right, that was only before Obama took office).
What’s the problem here? I thought we already put the tax cheat hurdle behind us.
Same subject - different thread.
“At this rate, at least 4 out of 14 of Obama’s Cabinet appointees have admitted to or are strongly suspected of committing felony-level crimes. That’s more than 28%!”
Suspected by whom?!!
Speak for yourself on that one! I suspect all of them of serious felonies, starting with treason! That’s at least 100% the last time I looked it up.
Another one bites the IRS! LOL!
For real...she would go to the frat houses, and get it on with literally dozens of guys there a night, and do the most outrageously wacked out things...she usually hung at a place named Rico’s...we chatted for years until I got sick of hearing her describe all the things she’d do, though I know she was into me...just wondering!
Leo Hindery, Jr.
Leo Hindery, Jr. is Managing Partner of InterMedia Partners VII, LP, along with Peter M. Kern.
Until October 2004, Mr. Hindery was Chairman (and until May 2004 Chief Executive Officer) of The YES Network, the nation’s largest regional sports network which he founded in June of 2001 as the television home of the New York Yankees, where he won five executive producer Emmys for outstanding programming. From December 1999 until January 2001, Mr. Hindery was Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of GlobalCenter Inc., a major Internet services company, which was then merged into Exodus Communications, Inc. Until November 1999, Mr. Hindery was President and Chief Executive Officer of AT&T Broadband, which was formed out of the March 1999 merger of Tele-Communications, Inc. (TCI) into AT&T. Mr. Hindery was elected President of TCI and all of its affiliated companies, then the world’s largest cable television system operator and programming entity, in February 1997.
******
Hindery, Leo Jr.
NEW YORK CITY, NY
10174 $25,000 10/08/2008 P CITIZENS FOR STRENGTH AND SECURITY
HINDERY, LEO J
NEW YORK, NY
10022 INTERMEDIA/MANAGING PARTNER $500 04/09/2008 P HAGAN SENATE COMMITTEE INC - Democrat
Hindery, Leo J Jr
NEW YORK, NY
10021 $-2,300 03/24/2008 P JOHN EDWARDS FOR PRESIDENT - Democrat
HINDERY, LEO J JR
NEW YORK, NY
10174 INTERMEDIA PARTNERS/MANAGING PARTNE $2,300 12/31/2007 G FRIENDS OF MARY LANDRIEU INC - Democrat
http://www.campaignmoney.com/political/contributions/leo-hindery.asp?cycle=08
Leo Hindery
Businessman Leo Hindery, former president of the YES network (the Yankees’ and Devils’ broadcast network), has been a proflic donor to the Democratic Party and various candidates, including $25,000 to both the DSCC and DCCC in 2004. He offered significant support to Tom Daschle, the SD Democratic Party, and a PAC suppporting Daschle’s campaign.
He was even more generous in the 2000 cycle when soft dollar donations were not barred by law, and when he was CEO of once high-flying Silicon Valley firm Global Center, had stints with AT&T Broadband, and was a former chairman of the National Cable Television Association. His stint at Global Center, where he oversaw a merger with Exodus Communications, netted him about $247 million — the sort of princely sum that allowed him to focus on political advocacy and philanthropy, but also saddled him with baggage from the company’s subsequent corporate scandals (which also tainted Terry McAuliffe). His private philanthropy is focused on the fight against AIDS. He also races a Porsche 911 GT3 in the 24-hour Le Mans race.
But Hindery’s most audacious move these past four years was helping fund the Osama ads that helped sink Howard Dean in Iowa. Hindery was a fierce Dick Gephardt supporter in the primaries and eagerly bought into the “Americans for Jobs & Healthcare” effort to take down Dean. So eager, in fact, that he contributed $100,000 of the organization’s total $663,000 budget.
CURSE YOU, TURBO TAX!
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