HHS Nominee Tom Daschle a Tax Cheat?

ABC News reports that former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle, who is President’s Obama nominee for Health and Human Services secretary, may have cheated on his 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. […]

After being defeated in his 2004 re-election campaign to the Senate, Daschle in 2005 became a consultant and chairman of the Executive Advisory Board at InterMedia Advisors.

Based in New York City, InterMedia Advisors is a private equity firm founded in part by longtime Daschle friend and Democratic fundraiser Leo Hindery, the former president of the YES network (the Yankees’ and Devils’ broadcast network).

That same year he began his professional relationship with InterMedia 2005, Daschle began using the services of Hindery’s car and driver.

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.

(Mr. Daschle reimbursed the IRS $31,462 in taxes and interest for tax year 2005; $35,546 for 2006; and $34,935, a Daschle spokesperson said, adding that Daschle had asked his accountant to look into the tax implications of the car and driver five months before Mr. Obama won the presidency.) […]

Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., who heads the Senate Finance Committee that is considering Daschle’s nomination, has called a meeting of senators for Monday at 5 p.m. to discuss this development.

ABC reports that Daschle said through a spokesman he “deeply regretted his mistake. When he realized it was a mistake he corrected it rapidly.” Just like Timothy Geithner, the tax evader who is now Treasury secretary.

Daschle is President Obama’s field marshal in the approaching battle to impose socialist medicine on Americans.

(see related post, Why Don’t Liberals Pay Their Taxes?)