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| Home Front: Politix |
| Flash: Still another Obama nominated tax cheat withdraws. |
| 2009-02-03 |
| If her cheating had involved a 5 or 6 figure number she might have hung in there. But $298, "Oh, the humanity!" WASHINGTON (AP) - Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.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. "Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Tuesday. The 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., was expected to explain her reasons for pulling out later in the day. 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 refused to answer questions about the tax error, which she resolved five months after the lien was filed. Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, took his name out of consideration when his confirmation appeared headed toward complications because of a grand jury investigation over how state contracts were issued to political donors. More recently, Timothy Geithner was confirmed as Treasury secretary despite belatedly paying $34,000 in income taxes, and Tom Daschle is still waiting to see if his late payment of more than $128,000 in income taxes will harm his nomination to be health and human services secretary. On paper, Killefer brought impressive credentials to the two jobs Obama selected her for: deputy director for management at the Office of Management and Budget, which requires Senate confirmation, and a new White House post, chief performance officer for the entire federal government, which does not require confirmation. Killefer oversees McKinsey's management consulting for government clients. During 1997-2000 in the Clinton administration, Killefer was assistant Treasury secretary for management. As such she was the chief financial officer and chief operating officer for the Treasury and its 160,000 employees and led a modernization of its largest component, the Internal Revenue Service. But for nearly a month, the administration had refused to answer how its choice to make government workers more efficient and more responsive had bungled her household payroll taxes. The AP reported that on March 7, 2005, the D.C. Department of Employment Services slapped a tax lien on her home in the tony Wesley Heights neighborhood. The local government alleged that just three years after she left the high-powered Treasury post she began to fail to pay unemployment compensation tax for a household employee. And she failed to make the required quarterly payments for a year and half, whereupon a lien for $946.69 was placed on her home. That sum included $298 in unpaid taxes, $48.69 in interest and $600 in penalties. The lien was filed March 7, 2005, but Killefer didn't get the lien extinguished for almost five months, not until July 29. During that period, Killefer and her husband, an economics professor, had a teenage son and daughter, but she had two nannies and a personal assistant to run her life when she was on the road, she told Harvard business students back then. |
| Posted by:GolfBravoUSMC |
| #9 Ms. Killefer's declination might have had little to do with her tax issue. I would like to think she experienced an epiphany in judgement based on the character of her future handlers. |
| Posted by: Besoeker 2009-02-03 16:56 |
| #8 and also Ms Killefer actually paid those taxes and penalties long before Obama had nominated her. Daschle didn't pay until some time after Obama clinched the nomination and Geithner didn't pay until after he was nominated. |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-02-03 16:49 |
| #7 "Is it just me, or does $600 in penalties seem excessive for $298 in unpaid taxes?" Is it just me, Al, or could she have avoided $600 penalty by just PAYING HER DAMN TAXES like the rest of us |
| Posted by: Barbara Skolaut 2009-02-03 16:37 |
| #6 From the Times. It appears Captain Louis Reynault has joined the editorial board... After this editorial was published, Tom Daschle did the right thing – for himself and more important for the Obama administration – and withdrew his name from nomination as Secretary of Health and Human Services. He may have been propelled to do so by the news that Nancy Killefer, who was appointed by Mr. Obama to the newly created position of White House chief performance officer, had also withdrawn – citing her own tax troubles. The withdrawal of Ms. Killefer had left a lot of people, including us, scratching their heads and wondering what had become of President Obama's high ethical standards. It should not be hard for the new president to find high-quality appointees to both of these posts. Before he names them, he might have his team do a little more thorough scrubbing of their tax returns. Americans have the right to know that their appointed leaders pay their full share of taxes. Maybe Barry's "high ethical standards" are not what you think they are? |
| Posted by: tu3031 2009-02-03 16:02 |
| #5 here is another oddity it seems Ms Killefer paid penalties on her $900+ problem while Daschle didn't pay any penalties nor did Rangel. |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-02-03 15:20 |
| #4 The government charges interest rates that would violate usury laws if they applied to to themselves. |
| Posted by: ed 2009-02-03 13:18 |
| #3 Just heard Daschle withdrew. |
| Posted by: Glenmore 2009-02-03 13:03 |
| #2 and IIUC Ms Killefer's position did not require Senate confirmation |
| Posted by: mhw 2009-02-03 11:42 |
| #1 Is it just me, or does $600 in penalties seem excessive for $298 in unpaid taxes? Al |
| Posted by: Frozen Al 2009-02-03 11:37 |