Mar 12 2009
The Geithner Report
A dear friend of mine caught me off guard when I mentioned that I couldn’t understand the Geithner Treasury appointment. After all how can you put a certifiable tax cheat (okay you have an issue with that label—too strong for ya?) a person who can’t do or have done, their own taxes honestly or with integrity, in charge of the US Treasury and all the complicated financial matters that go along with it. (not to mention having to deal with “THE WORST FINANCIAL CATASTROPHE SINCE THE GREAT DEPRESSION,” —President Barack Obama) Fear mongering—what’s that… Right!
I believe she said, “it was an innocent mistake, taxes for the IMF are complicated and anyone could have made them.” First of all aren’t we all paranoid about doing our taxes properly spending billions with a B for assorted services and time to get it right? So when taxes are complicated and we have something to lose by filing incorrect returns we seek help. AND if we are audited (with our balls in a vice) and they tell us we need to make corrections we don’t have the balls to hold back information—do we? Well, Tim Geithner sure did!
I scratched my head and said, that’s not what my sources tell me. She asked me to research it so we could discuss it and I did. To my knowledge she still hasn’t read my evidence report, but if she did she might have something else to say, I mean something besides, an apology…
In 2006 he was audited about the years 2003-2004 where it was found out that he owed taxes (didn’t pay money that he was told repeatedly by his employer and brought out in the confirmation hearings: “That characterization was contested by Senate Finance Republicans, who produced IMF documents showing that employees are repeatedly told they are responsible for paying their payroll taxes.”)
Based on his 2006 audit he didn’t do anything about his tax years of 2001-2002 even though he knew that he did the same thing then: as a matter of fact the only reason he did finally do something (2008) about cheating on his taxes was because team Obama found the discrepancy during the vetting process and told him he needed to clear it up in order to nominate him. So the only reason he paid was that he got caught the first time and didn’t plan on being nominated so he did nothing until he had to to get the position.
Other tax issues also surfaced during the vetting, including the fact Mr. Geithner used his child’s time at overnight camps in 2001, 2004 and 2005 to calculate dependent-care tax deductions. Sleepaway camps don’t qualify.
It seems that he just made an innocent mistake everyone makes because everybody else cheats on their taxes too… No big deal. If it’s me or you—we’re having wages garnished, fined, possibly jail.
It boils down to a question of integrity and based on his handling of his own taxes I don’t believe he has any…
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More evidence reporting the same information by reputable (except for MSNBC, but even they say it—I’m fair and balanced) organizations:
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MSNBC
Even with the details MSNBC leaves out of it’s report (mentioning just an innocent mistake many times.) he shouldn’t be confirmed as the guy responsible for the US Treasury…
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Other Voices on the subject:
Gregg to Geithner: You’re lying
When Judd Gregg abruptly withdrew from his appointment as Commerce Secretary, I wrote that Barack Obama now faced the real risk of having created the most credible critic of his administration. That nightmare came true on the Hill yesterday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner tried explaining Deadbeatonomics to the Senate Budget Committee. Gregg chewed Geithner to pieces with facts and figures, exposing Geithner and Obama’s economic policies as incompetent:
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Report: Most Uniquely Qualified Candidate has an understudy
Recall, if you will, the rationale provided by the Obama administration for sticking with Tim Geithner when his tax troubles came to light. No one could possibly replace him, a view also oddly adopted by both Democrats and Republicans on Capitol Hill. Geithner had unique qualifications that no one else could possibly match, and his show of incompetence in tax filings paled in comparison to the disaster that would befall the US and the world if Geithner withdrew.
It turns out that even the Obama administration didn’t buy that argument:
