The secret Obama revenue plan? (updated)

By Ed Lasky

Another Obama cabinet pick was a tax cheat, and has paid up back taxes and penalties he owed, exceeding $128,000. Apparently, this is how Obama plans to pay for his outrageous budget-busting "stimulus" plans. Appoint tax delinquents to his cabinet, and watch the money roll in as they cough up what they owe.

Daschle has earned more than $5 million in the past 2 years as a lobbyist, including almost a quarter million dollars from health care groups he will be regulating. Obama's campaign promises about lobbyists were simply deceitful/

Daschle's excuses are pathetic. The WaPo writes about

a car and driver provided by a private equity firm run by entrepreneur and longtime Democratic Party donor Leo J. Hindery Jr.,

which Daschle's flack excuses:

Backus, Daschle's spokeswoman, said Daschle "naively" believed the car service was "nothing more than a generous offer from a friend.

Naivete is not something that Senators are known to be afflicted with. Hindery is a long-time entertainment executive; now he heads up one of those private equity firms that have help lard up companies with the same leverage that is causing us so much trouble now. Hindery was rewarding Daschle for the influence Daschle had as the former Democratic Majority Leader.

Considering that sky high credit card bills-due in part to usurious interest rates- have been blamed for people not being able to afford health care, maybe one of the Senators during the confirmation hearings can question Daschle about his role in making his state the enabler of such high interest rates? It was not just Biden protecting credit card companies -- which, by the way, makes Biden’s role as head of the middle class task force laughable.

Update -- Bill Tate adds:

Yet another leader of the party that wants to raise taxes on most folks has failed to pay his own taxes. Tom Daschle, President Obama's choice to be Health & Human Services Secretary, reportedly recently paid $140,000 in back taxes he had failed to pay from 2005-2007.

The alleged tax avoidance involved limo services provided as part of Daschle's $1 million-a-year gig as a 'consultant' for a New York City private equity firm. ('Consultant' sounds so much better than 'lobbyist', doesn't it?) "InterMedia Advisors, LLP is a principal investment firm specializing in buyouts and industry consolidation," according to BusinessWeek, and Daschle also sits on its board of directors. According to Politico.com Dashle also "paid about $5,700 in back taxes and interest for charitable donations that Obama's transition team said may have been deducted in error, and another $32,000 for the unreported income.

Politico continued:

One top Republican aide, speaking on condition of anonymity, predicted that Daschle would step aside to avoid an embarrassing public grilling.?? "Imagine what the story would be, what the Democrat reaction would be, if a [Republican had done what Daschle did]," the staffer said. "Democrats would be howling, and they?d filibuster his a-- while linking him to every member of his party in Congress. . . . It would be ugly.

Daschle reportedly only paid the back taxes after Obama nominated him to be Health & Human Services Secretary and joins a growing list of controversial Obama cabinet nominees, including:

- Hillary Clinton, whose appointment as Secretary of State was questioned, among other things, because of her husband's financial ties with foreign leaders -Tim Geithner, Treasury Secretary, who also failed to pay income taxes -Eric Holder, whose appointment as Attorney General was opposed by some Senators because of his past involvement with politicized Clinton Justice Department decisions -Bill Richardson, Obama's original nominee as Commerce Secretary nominee, who had to withdraw because of a probe of 'Pay for Play'

- allegations in his role as Governor of New Mexico. An investigation that was already underway when Obama nominated him.

The State Department. The Treasury Department. The Justice Department.

The Commerce Department. Arguably the four most important wings of federal bureaucracy in current circumstances. And Obama's nominees to head all four stand accused of allegations that if leveled against Republicans, "Democrats would be howling, and they?d filibuster his a-- while linking him to every member of his party in Congress" as the unidentified staffer told Politico.

William Tate is an award-winning journalist and author