Republican Senator Throws Stones in a Glass House
Sen. Chuck Grassley (R-IA), senior Republican on the Finance Committee, today voted against Tim Geithner during the panel's vote on the Treasury Department nominee. From Grassley's statement:
With this nomination, all of us who serve on the Finance Committee also had to consider how significant it would be for the head of our nation's tax administration and tax policy to pay his own taxes without violations. The Treasury Secretary is in charge of the IRS, and must set a good example. ... I received a message yesterday from a constituent in Dubuque expressing concern about this nomination. The constituent wrote, "If the man cannot handle his own finances, how is he going to handle the country's?"
Someone should remind Grassley that he's not immune from the accounting "mistakes" to which Geithner has confessed.
Grassley's political fundraising committee, Hawkeye PAC, settled with the FEC two months ago to remedy "the inadvertent omission of several disbursements" on one of its 2006 contribution reports. (The settlement letter is in PDF form, but can be viewed by searching the FEC's website.)
The FEC's official letter on the case states that "when it recognized the deficiencies in compliance, [Grassley's PAC] immediately did an internal audit that reviewed all reports and records from 2002 to the present and developed financial procedures to maintain compliance." The PAC paid a $1,000 penalty to the FEC and agreed to appoint a compliance specialist to ensure it complied with campaign finance rules.
Josh
Elana
Matt
Eric
He's a hypocrite, sure, but Grassley isn't nominated to oversee the US Treasury.
The "no" vote is ridiculous, but it doesn't take away from Geithner's lame excuse for his mistakes. He's either stupid, arrogant, or both. I'm willing to give President O a pass on this one, but Cabinet nominees have been submarined for far less than this.
January 22, 2009 2:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
...and I'm sure Grassley wasn't doing his own books with "Quickbooks" and didn't "recall" whether or not a "Warning screen" popped up while he was doing them...
January 22, 2009 2:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
Either way, he will be gigantic improvement from Hammerin' Hank Paulson.
BTW, I much preferred your Aaron avatar. I'm done looking at Darth Cheney.
January 22, 2009 2:50 PM | Reply | Permalink
You must admit it's appropriate in his case.
January 22, 2009 3:08 PM | Reply | Permalink
Now THAT'S quite the avatar switch....
January 22, 2009 3:48 PM | Reply | Permalink
I second both comments.
Aaron was a much better avatar. Much.
January 22, 2009 3:16 PM | Reply | Permalink
Ok...how about this?
January 22, 2009 3:37 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm still looking at the smirking face of our former VP.
January 22, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
It should be Ronnie...
January 22, 2009 4:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
And Ronnie it is!
Cheney, then Reagan....how about Bush?
I still say BRING BACK HANK!
January 22, 2009 4:11 PM | Reply | Permalink
In fact, he does oversee the Treasury Department. That's what the Senate Finance Committee does and Grassley's the ranking member. And his hypocrisy is stunning.
January 22, 2009 5:42 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here’s why it’s laughable:
1. Apples and oranges, comparing this with Geithner.
2. The fact that TPM's new reporter, or the webmaster or whomever, said "go look for it yourself" rather than posting the actual PDF, indicates its small taters what Grassley's PAC did.
3. It was Grassley's PAC; we don't know if he knew anything about it.
4. It was, apparently, a one-off deal, not four years of malfeasance.
I'm shocked, shocked, I tell you that this is somehow supposed to make Geithner look better, or not so bad. I'm sure this will be a MSLB talking point.
January 22, 2009 7:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
What a canard. The FBI is a part of the DoJ. Does the AG need to be proficient with a firearm?
January 22, 2009 2:59 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, but it would be nice if he could refrain from shooting himself in the foot.
January 22, 2009 3:39 PM | Reply | Permalink
http://www.instantrimshot.com/
January 22, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Probably wouldn't hurt.
January 22, 2009 3:41 PM | Reply | Permalink
Do the members of the Finance Committee do their own taxes? They are the ones who write the obscure tax codes we have and ought to be able to do their own taxes. But I doubt any does.
The issue is not simply about taxes. It's more complicated. If Geithner made a mistake, then I certainly give him a pass. He paid the employee's share of FICA tax. He failed to pay the employer's share, which argues to this being a mistake. He also followed IRS instructions and paid what they asked him to pay. IRS decided that a mistake was plausible enough so that they did not go back the six years they normally do for fraud, merely three years.
Now, on the other hand, if Geithner decided to defraud the IRS and us, then he should never be confirmed. Finance Committee members have to make that determination. I seriously doubt a single person on that committee believes Geithner deliberately tried to defraud us. Ironically, Republicans are notorious for starving the IRS so that it can do fewer audits on the wealthy, despite the fact that feeding the IRS has a multiplier effect on government income.
This is all bullshit -- another Republican attempt to be obstructionist in plausible ways. They are, after all, the opposition party and they see their position as merely that, while they struggle to find out if they are any more than a party of old, evangelical, Southern whites.
January 22, 2009 3:44 PM | Reply | Permalink
I doubt that the people heading the IRS do their own taxes.
January 22, 2009 3:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Exregis, I'm sure Geithner's normal "employee share" of FICA taxes were automatically deducted from his pay, just like from yours and mine.
As an active verb, Geithner did nothing to "pay" this.
January 22, 2009 7:36 PM | Reply | Permalink
No, they weren't. That is the whole problem. He was working for the IMF, and all US citizens who work for them are considered to be self-employed, and therefore have to pay both the employer and employee part of Social Security taxes. The IMF pays them (the US employees) that money ON TOP OF their salaries so that there isn't a monetary loss; they just have to do the paperwork.
Employees are told this over and over, and have to sign forms indicating they understand this. So, he was supposed to do something actively to take care of it; it is hard to believe he 'forgot' it. I think he was trying to get away with not paying, and he would have if not for this appointment.
Once he was found out for the two years, he still didn't go back and pay for the other two. Why? Because he forgot again? He wanted to get away with it. There are plenty of people who will do this stuff. They are not all horrible people, but I want Obama to hold his appointees to a higher standard.
Anyway it's too late now. He's in. I hope he has turned over a new leaf.
January 22, 2009 8:55 PM | Reply | Permalink
Republican hypocrisy is not shocking just shameful. Hypocrisy is the lifeblood of loathsome tools like Chuck Grassley. Funny, I remember Obama won Iowa so exactly who is Gassley hearing from.
With all the deadbeats and incompetent people Grassley approved during the last eight years he hasn’t earned the right to pass judgment on anyone.
January 22, 2009 4:01 PM | Reply | Permalink
Geithner sounds like Bush: "I made some mistakes."
Heres a guy with a great education, someone who held responsible positions in finance with the FED and the IMF and he tells us he made rookie mistakes in his taxes? I was self employed for 30 years and didn't make the mistakes he did and I don't have a college education, nor a business degree.
Look, I didn't just fall off the turnip truck, lets call a spade a spade, he's lying. His "mistake" is in getting caught. If he wasn't nominaetd by Obama he may have never paid the taxes. He acted like a modern day version of Leona Helmsley.
Lets be consistant people, it this was a Bush appointee we'd be crufifying him.
January 22, 2009 4:31 PM | Reply | Permalink
Here’s my post here about the seriousness of the problem.
January 22, 2009 7:52 PM | Reply | Permalink
Let's leave the republicans out of this. It bothers me too about Geithner, and his lame excuses. OK, he made a mistake and was audited and paid for two years. He knew about the other two, but would have gotten away with it if not for this appointment. I can't believe it wasn't intentional. It bothers me.
Not enough to throw brickbats at Obama, who is doing an absolutely superb job in his first 2 days (!), but this guy's story bothers me; I don't believe him.
I know repubs never criticize their kind, but I want to get this thing off with an honest start, and I think that is the way Democrats should be.
January 22, 2009 4:32 PM | Reply | Permalink
I'm with you. I was on a federal jury for a tax case and we convicted a guy with a more convincing story than Geithner's. But he was just a farmer not an Ivy League hot shot.
January 22, 2009 6:00 PM | Reply | Permalink
Too late now -- he's got it. I'm not surprised, though. Are you, Bluebell?
January 22, 2009 8:46 PM | Reply | Permalink
We have to avoid double standards and hold ourselves (Dems) to higher standards.
For God's sake, it's impossible for a person in Geithner's position to have received a 1099 at the end of the year and not know that he owed a significant amount in payroll taxes. People who cheat on their taxes affect higher taxes for the rest of us.
If we take the position that only this man can do the job (as seems to be the bazaar consensus), then we're doing ourselves and our country a disservice.
Obama shouldn't have appointed him, and either Geithner should withdraw or Dems shouldn't confirmed him. In short, I'm with Grassley.
January 22, 2009 6:27 PM | Reply | Permalink
ASSHAT!
January 22, 2009 8:12 PM | Reply | Permalink
I agree with those that think Geithner needs to be held accountable for this in the harshest way. Not only because he knows better -- no denying that -- but because he would be at the helm for the agency charged with tax laws and enforcement in this country.
I've sat through Grand Jury proceedings where tax cheats were indicted, and this one is right there at the top. I'm sorry, but I don't give him the benefit of the doubt here. I believe his actions were nefarious and certainly with an intent to evade paying the full tax liability. Period. End of story.
I have been self-employed for over 20 years and the best advice I was given early on was to sit down with a CPA for a discussion about taxes and what to expect in the way of tax liability at the end of the year.
This is inexcusable for a man in his position. (And I thought I heard somewhere that he also tried to claim as an exemption his daughter's summer camp expense. Gutsy.)
Pauline
January 22, 2009 11:10 PM | Reply | Permalink