Newt Gingrich Urges Republicans To Oppose "Tax Evader" Timothy Geithner From Becoming Treasury Secretary

Timothy Geithner is President Obama's nominee for Treasury secretary. Before taking the oath of office on Tuesday, Obama called Mr. Geithner's tax problems an "innocent mistake." Geithner's "innocent mistake" includes failure to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for 2001, 2002, 2003 and 2004.

Former House Speaker Newt Gingrich told the Washington Times that "Senate Republicans should make it clear that they will not permit a tax evader to become the secretary of the Treasury. Even after he was explicitly sent material telling him he had to pay them he did not do so." Gingrich very logically insists that it "would be wrong for someone who did not pay taxes to become secretary of the Treasury in charge of getting taxes from the rest of us. It would be doubly wrong to appoint him in an administration which intends to raise taxes on the rest of us." It does not bode well that Geithner is being nominated for the cabinet position that actually puts him in charge of running the Internal Revenue Service when he was not paying his own taxes.

Gingrich made another good point when he said that "Geithner has had to pay $33,000 in back taxes and $15,000 in interest. The IRS did not fine him. Ask small businesses how many of them think they could avoid paying self-employment Social Security and Medicare taxes for seven years and not be fined."

Geithner testified today before the Senate that his failure to pay the taxes was "careless" but "unintentional." Many people will find it hard to believe that a man of Geithner's economic savvy was unable to accurately fill out his own return. But allow us to indulge Geithner and imagine that his failure to pay all his taxes was an innocent mistake. What does that say about the U.S. tax code? Philip J. Holthouse, a partner with the tax law and accounting firm Holthouse Carlin & VanTrigt in Santa Monica, California, said that "it speaks volumes about the impracticalities and uncertainties of our tax system that somebody who is considered a stellar nominee for the Treasury Department has struggled mightily -- and with professional help -- and still has trouble getting his own tax return correct."

A great article by Jonah Goldberg on the subject: http://townhall.com/columnists/JonahGoldberg/2009/01/23/a_free_pass_for_the_indispensable_man

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