The REAL TV news is on Democracy NOW! DISH channels 9410 & 9415, DirecTV channel 275:Despite problems with unpaid taxes, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner was confirmed last week, but Tom Daschle, President Obama’s nominee for Health and Human Services, had to withdraw his nomination for his own tax lapses. We speak to the Pulitzer-winning reporting team Jim Steele and Don Barlett on the breakdown of America’s tax system—and why they say Geithner’s lapses were far more egregious than Daschle’s.
DONALD BARLETT: Well, as Jim indicated, these are the payroll taxes—Social Security, Medicare—that everyone has to pay. And, you know, the tax code is complex. Everybody knows that. It is easy to make a mistake.
But the reason we said that Geithner’s was far more egregious is this. He signed a piece of paper acknowledging that he owed both taxes while he was employed by the IMF. He then collected the money from IMF to pay the taxes. Now, most of us, you know, the payroll taxes are withheld. We don’t get reimbursed for those taxes. It comes out of our own pocket. But Mr. Geithner not only signed a paper acknowledging he owed taxes, he collected money to pay the taxes and then didn’t pay them and pocketed the money. This is why it was far more egregious for him and why—you know, the New York Times demanded that Tom Daschle withdraw, and he did. But the same demand was not put on Mr. Geithner.
And even more disturbing is the fact that only one Democratic member of the Senate Finance Committee voted against Mr. Geithner for this reason—for this reason. That was the Iowa Senator Tom Harkin, who said he just couldn’t support it. And Harkin was right, because the message this is sending to the public of large—the tax system already is as close to collapse as you’re going to get as a result of it not being enforced evenly. The double standard on tax law—as you indicated in the introduction, Jim and I have been writing about taxes for almost forty years. Our first series that won the Pulitzer Prize was on the unequal enforcement of the tax code. And that was back in the 1970s. And since then, it has exploded. And what is happening now in Washington just captures where it is now. Here you have the Senate Finance Committee approving this, and you have the Senate overwhelmingly approving it.
Pulitzer Winners Jim Steele and Don Barlett: Geithner Tax Troubles Far More Egregious Than Daschle's
