Daschle failed to pay $128,000 in taxes
Didn’t he complete that ridiculously long form about his past that the Obamanations wanted? Daschle may not have had a drunken picture of himself on Facebook but answering away not paying over $100K in tax is going to be tough. Did he think it wouldn’t come up? Now I know it was only a free car & driver, but apparently Daschle took three years to notice that he wasn’t paying for it, and that it counted as income.
On the other hand, if Daschle doesn’t get past this, maybe we’ll get someone to run health care reform who has some slightly better ideas than Daschle’s somewhat sophomorific effort—even if not his political connections.
Sophomoric compared to who? He identified the fundamental issue: the complete disconnect between evidence and the payment/coverage decisions made by the federal government, and how the “industry” has exploited that disconnect to influence health policy thru the lobbying process. The sad thing is that he, himself, made a fortune through that lobbying process, and did not realize how sensitive this would be politically with a President who campaigned on “good government”. Still a quality cabinet choice and still likely to be confirmed.
I never thought that the “new boss(es)” were going to be much different than the old ones. So in case anybody out there thought the Democrats were descended from heaven — well hello!
He’ll get in.
He’s a politician, what did you expect?
Daschle was instrumental in Obama’s campaign, so it is not likely that Obama will pitch him overboard.
However, I think it is instructive to see that the guy who is the one who wants centralize and oversee our heathcare system can’t seem to get the tax deductibility of donations or his 1099s straight. But he did get to drive around in a limo w/driver.
His mistakes as Sec HHS will have much more profound consequences.