Annals Of The Obama Administration

March 31, 2009 by Frank Gannon | Filed Under American Politics, Annals of the Obama Administration, Congress, Double Standard Paranoia Quotient 

Life imitates comedy, and what was originally treated as a sardonic punchline by House Minority Whip Eric Cantor —“It’s easy for [Democrats] to sit here and advocate higher taxes because — you know what? — they don’t pay them”— may turn out to have been an understatement of the facts of the matter.

Geither, Daschle and Solis, and others whose nominations were deep-sixed in order to dodge the tax cheat bullet, are now joined by Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius, the disgraced Daschle’s much-touted replacement.

As just reported by Mark Silva on The Swamp blog:

In a coda to the collection of back-taxes from Cabinet nominees, Gov. Kathleen Sebelius, President Obama’s nominee for secretary of Health and Human Services, said today that she has paid more than $7,000 in back taxes owed.

In a letter to senators released by the administration, Sebelius said the “unintentional” underpayments in income taxes had involved charitable contributions, the sale of a home and business expenses.

Sebelius, who faced her first confirmation hearing by a Senate committee today, said she filed amended tax returns as soon as the errors were found by an accountant hired to scrub her taxes in preparation for her confirmation hearings.

The Kansas governor and her husband, Gary, a federal magistrate judge in Kansas, paid a total of $7,040 in back taxes and $878 in interest to amend returns from 2005-07.

And to save time and space, allow me to add a coda that would undoubtedly have turned into a DSPQ post in the next couple of days:

But Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.) quickly moved to quell any controversy: “Congress is going to need a strong partner at the Department of Health and Human Services to achieve comprehensive health reform this year, and we have that partner in Gov. Sebelius,” Baucus said. “There is absolutely no doubt in my mind that Gov. Sebelius has the political experience, determination, and bipartisan work ethic to get the job done with Congress this year. She’s the right person for the job.”

The well-regarded Kansas Governor Kathleen Sebelius posed in her Topeka office for Vogue magazine early last year.  Her hasty payment of more than $7,000 in back taxes presents the Obama administration with the latest in a line of embarrassing revelations regarding its Cabinet nominees.  The accompanying article noted that:  ”In person, the governor is elegant, circumspect (a trait Kansans approve) and strikingly fit. She loves to golf, scuba dive, play tennis, sail and jog (the last while listening to the  Dixie Chicks).”

Comments