Are There Any Democrats Who Pay Their Taxes?

Does this make six now? I have honestly lost count, but it was reported today that another Obama nominee failed to pay taxes owed. Today’s tax dodging democrat is Kansas Governor and Secretary of Health and Human Services nominee, Kathleen Sebelius. The irony runs deep on this one since she was the back-up pick and supposed safe choice after Democratic Senator Tom Daschle withdrew from consideration for this same position when it was discovered that he owed some $140,000 in back taxes due to “oversights”. So, let’s recap.

• Tom Daschle – Democrat – former Senator from So. Dakota – nominated as Sec. of HHS – withdrew due to oweing $140,000 in back taxes.
• Tim Geithner – Democrat – former NY fed chairman – nominated for Treasury Secretary (yup, the one that’s in charge of tax collection) – Nomination approved by the Senate even though he underpaid his taxes by nearly $30,000. The man in charge of all U.S. tax collection couldn’t manage to properly file his own taxes using Turbo Tax!  I am not making this stuff up!
• Ron Kirk – Democrat – former Dallas Mayor – nominated to be U.S. Trade Representative – Nomination approved even though he had failed to pay some $10,000 in taxes.
• Nancy Killefer – Democrat – nominated to be the first ever nation’s Chief Performance Officer (oh the irony) – withdrew to avoid embarassment. You see the city of D.C. had to place a lien on her home to get her to pay a past tax bill.
• Hilda Solis – Democrat – Congresswoman from California – nominated to be Labor Secretary – also approved despite her failure to appropriately pay her taxes.

and last, at least for the time being, there’s

• Kathleen Sebelius – Democrat – Governor of Kansas – nomination pending for Secretary of HHS – plan on her being approved as well.

So, yes, that does make six Obama nominees, all Democrats, who failed to pay their taxes appropriately. Here is the problem for the President; this is an either, or situation.  Either these people are criminals who were purposely avoiding paying their fair share of the tax burden as U.S. citizens, or they are morons who can’t figure out how to file a tax return and apparently can’t manage with all their connections to find an accountant who knows how to file taxes either.

Think about that for a minute.  On the one hand, you have the very socialists who are screaming that the rich (which all of these folks are by the way) should pay more taxes, cheating on their tax returns to avoid doing what they expect the citizens they govern to do.  Or, on the other hand, you have people with every conceivable connection and resource, a U.S. Senator, a Fed Chairman, a U.S. Congresswoman, a Governor, a Mayor of a major U.S. city who aren’t bright enough to properly file a proper tax return or hire someone who can?  That is simply not believable. After all, these are people who know they are in the spotlight, who know that an inaccurate tax return could come back to haunt them.

But, where’s the outrage at this? American citizens are outraged that AIG employees received legally earned bonuses, but don’t seem to care that their leaders don’t pay their share of taxes???  Where’s the great American media?  Where’s CNN?  Do you honestly believe that had a Republican President nominated 6 members of his party who were tax-dodging thieves, that story would have ever gone away? Perhaps the most compelling question is this – if this high a percentage of Obama’s nominees aren’t properly paying their taxes, how many more politicians owe us money? If the people in charge of the tax code aren’t going to follow it, why should the citizenry?