Tim Geithner Did What Leona Helmsley Did

Update (1/19): ALG photo: Geithner — Lazy, Stupid, or Crooked?
Eric Erickson at RedState hit the nail on the head regarding the fact that tax-cheat Tim Geither may go to Treasury and even run the IRS :

Tim Geithner Did What Leona Helmsley Did. She Went to Jail. Will He Go to Treasury? Geithner is allegedly a brilliant career bureaucrat. He's a political insider with his own ties to Obama, as Obama's mother once reported to Geithner's father. Having never worked in the private sector, he has cooked his personal books like one of the Wall Street swindlers Team Obama routinely excoriates.

Let us assume the oh-so brilliant Geithner - who does his own taxes because he is so smart - did innocently forget to pay the employer's share of taxes related to an employee. That could happen; the Democrats sank Linda Chavez' nomination as Labor Secretary over less. Even so, there is the matter of Geithner's own taxes. The International Monetary Fund sent notices to Geithner making clear he was responsible for his payroll taxes. He had direct knowledge that he was responsible, but he still refused to pay. He even accepted reimbursement from the IMF for those taxes and signed certifications that he'd paid them. When he finally decided to pay, Geithner paid only enough to avoid potential criminal liability for failure to pay taxes. He willfully shortchanged the tax system even though he'd already been reimbursed for the taxes. There is no issue of mistake here. Geithner knew he had a tax obligation, took steps to pay his taxes, and deliberately paid only so much as to avoid criminal liability, but not so much as to pay his entire obligation.

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Tags: Treasury, nominee, RedState, Secretary of Treasury, tax cheat, Tim Geither, Leona Helmsley To share or post to your site, click on "Post Link". Please mention / link to the ARRA News Service. Thanks!