Money Problems Everywhere...

And more than you might think!

Let’s start with the top kingpin: one Barack Obama. His impressive resume includes sliding into the White House mostly on the race card.

Well, it’s no wonder he picked tax cheats for his cabinet. You see, he owes the city of Philadelphia $24,000, he owes Springfield Illinois $65,000, and he owes Chicago $2 million.

That’s a lot of zeroes, but give me a minute… alright. The combined final cost of all these bills comes to $2,089,000.00.

And I thought he was rich.

Next, we have Joe Biden, who is also being fraudulent. Cross-posted from There's My Two Cents:

The Bidens' 2006 purchase of Paradigm has sparked litigation. In December, James and Hunter Biden settled a lawsuit brought in New York state court by a one time business partner, Anthony Lotito Jr. Mr. Lotito alleged the Bidens owed him money from the Paradigm purchase. In court filings, he also contended that James Biden asked him to help Hunter Biden, who had been a Washington lobbyist, get into the hedge-fund business. Mr. Lotito alleged that Joe Biden was concerned about the impact his son's lobbying could have on his planned 2008 run for the Democratic presidential nomination. Mr. Biden did run for president but dropped out of the race.

More here, if you want the full article.

Rahm Emanuel is also cheating:

Gawker first reported that Emanuel rents a basement apartment last week, mostly to make fun of the chief of staff for sleeping on a futon under a blacklight poster of Bob Marley. Which is an important part of the story, but it turns out the residence in question isn't zoned for rentals.

That sent Emanuel's colleague and alleged landlord out to deny the charges. Rep. Rose DeLauro (D-Conn.) told her hometown paper, "Hey, it's cool. He doesn't rent from me. He lives there for free!"

"I wanted to make clear: we have no separate apartment in our DC house, no rental apartment; all our bedrooms and living areas are part of the house and accessible. They are often used by close family and friends. In
mid-November, I got a call from the DC zoning office indicating that somebody had lodged a complaint and asked to inspect the property, which we welcomed. My husband was there for the inspection, which was uneventful and we did not hear again from the zoning office."

...Hospitality between colleagues is not prohibited by House ethics rules, but a gift of this size would have required a written waiver from the Standards Committee, which neither party has yet produced.

But, let's not stop there with the questionable ethics. DeLauro is married to one Stan Greenberg, a Democratic pollster who has made quite a pile of money off work supplied to him by none other than his semi-permanent house guest. Living for free in the home of a Democratic pollster whom you employed as both a Congressman and as chair of the DCCC might run up against the ethics rules of the "most open and transparent" administration in history. That revolving door Obama keeps talking about is actually the private entrance to Emanuel's digs.

Dude, I'm not even done yet. Let's keep going...

Of course, who can forget Tim Geithner. I won't go into detail here, but let me give you the highlights. He failed to pay $34,000 dollars he owed in taxes. He paid the back taxes and interest the day before his nomination. And this guy is the head of the IRS. Good grief, they should be the ones putting him in jail.

Bill Richardson, nominee for Secretary of Commerce, was accused of giving a state contract to one of his contributors. Whoops.

Tom Daschle cheated on taxes:

The controversy deals with a car and driver lent to Daschle by a wealthy Democratic friend -- a chauffeur service the former senator used for years without declaring it on his taxes. ...

...The Cadillac and driver were never part of Daschle's official compensation package at InterMedia, but Mr. Daschle -- who as Senate majority leader enjoyed the use of a car and driver at taxpayer expense -- didn't declare their services on his income taxes, as tax laws require.

During the vetting process to become HHS secretary, Daschle corrected the tax violation, voluntarily paying $101,943 in back taxes plus interest, working with his accountant to amend his tax returns for 2005 through 2007.

Perhaps it's a good thing he was nominated for health and Human Services Secretary. Now he can feel good about paying back all that money he owes. But still. He was using this car - payed for with tax money - without paying taxes for using it.

And then we have Nancy Killefer, who got in trouble for ...... cheating on taxes!

And how did we not see this coming?

Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.

The White House said Obama had accepted Killefer's decision and that the 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., would explain her reasons for pulling out later Tuesday.

When her selection was announced by Obama on Jan. 7, The Associated Press disclosed that in 2005 the District of Columbia government had filed a $946.69 tax lien on her home for failure to pay unemployment compensation tax on household help.

Since then, administration officials have refused to answer questions about the tax error which she resolved five months after the lien was filed.

Yep. They refuse to let it blow up in Obama's face. My, wouldn't something like this be an embarrassment to the "most transparent administration in history"? Actually, that should be the "most corrupt administration in history". You're not as bad as Clinton yet, Barack, but you're getting there.

And then we have the Secretary of State, Hillary Clinton. I kid you not. She is involved in a pay-to-play scandal.


On top of all this, the second porkulus (AKA "Onmibus") spending bill has earmarks in it for Obama, Emanuel, Clinton, and Biden, along with Interior Secretary Ken Salazar, Transportation Secretary Ray LaHood, and Labor Secretary Hilda L. Solis. (Here, here.)

So your money is going right into their pockets. These cheats, all of whom either owe someone money, or have cheated on taxes, are going to take your money. They've already taken $787 billion, they're coming back for $410 million more (Unless that bill has already been killed - we can only hope).

And if that wasn't enough, Obama's budget calls for $3.6 trillion dollars. You can read about it here.

One final thing: as of today Geithner has announced that Obama team will crack down on tax dodgers. I suggest he start with himself.
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3-4-09
Just when I think I'm done, wouldn't you know I'm not! Apparently Apparently we have a new one: Ron Kirk. Guess what he's in trouble for... Tax dodging!

Another Obama administration nominee has tax troubles. This time, it's Ron Kirk, the president's choice to be U.S. trade representative.

Kirk owes an estimated $10,000 in back taxes from earlier in the decade and has agreed to pay them, the Senate Finance Committee said Monday. The committee said the taxes arise from Kirk's handling of speaking fees he donated to a scholarship fund that he set up at his alma mater, and for his deduction of the full cost of season tickets to the Dallas Mavericks professional basketball team.

Kirk also agreed to make changes in his accounting of charitable deductions, including reducing the claimed value of a donated television from $3,000 to $1,500.

The former Dallas mayor is the fourth nominee by President Barack Obama to run into tax problems.

Well isn't this just lovely. More tax problems. The only question now is, was anyone really surprised?
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4-1-09
And just when you think it's over, you find it's not. No, this is no April Fool's Day joke:

Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama's nominee to become Health and Human Services secretary, said in a letter obtained by the Associated Press that she made "unintentional errors" on her taxes and has corrected her returns from three different years.

In the letter, which was sent to senators and dated today, Sebelius wrote that she had made changes related to charitable contributions, business expenses and the sale of a home, according to the AP.

The wire service reports that she and her husband paid just over $7,000 in back taxes, along with $878 in interest, for the years 2005-2007.

... CBS News has obtained Sebelius' letter to the Senate Finance Committee. She writes in it that she and her husband hired a Certified Public Accountant to review their returns after her nomination and that the CPA uncovered the errors, after which they amended their returns.

On the charitable contributions front, she writes that she could not locate three acknowledgment letters out of her 49 charitable contributions in excess of $250, and thus eliminated those three deductions.

She also writes that she had "insufficient documentation" for some of her tax dedications for business expenses, though because of the Alternative Minimum Tax they did not affect the amount owed. She also said she mistakenly paid off a home loan that included deductable mortgage interest.

Oh yeah, most transparent administration ever. Yeah right. Maybe she did make an "unintentional mistake," but she was nominated for the Cabinet, so we can't help but wonder...