SORRY BECAUSE HE GOT CAUGHT

NEWS ITEM CULLED FROM THE HEADLINES

Daschle withdraws as Obama's healthcare nominee

Preserved from Yahoo! News
Reuters
3 February 2009, noon MST

WASHINGTON (Reuters) – Former Senate Majority Leader Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination as President Barack Obama's health secretary on Tuesday, saying he did not want to be a distraction after tax errors forced him to pay $140,000 in back taxes.

"This morning, Tom Daschle asked me to withdraw his nomination for secretary of health and human services," Obama said in a statement. "I accept his decision with sadness and regret."

Daschle also will not be taking the White House job he was slated to hold concurrently to spearhead a major reform of the costly U.S. healthcare system.

Daschle said in a statement he was withdrawing because he did not want to be a distraction.

"This work will require a leader who can operate with the full faith of Congress and the American people, and without distraction," Daschle said in a statement released by the White House.

"Right now, I am not that leader and will not be a distraction," he said.

(Reporting by David Alexander and Jeff Mason; Editing by David Wiessler.)

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RIGHT ASCENSION LEADS THE HUZZAHS AS DASCHLE GOES BACK TO THE WOODWORK

I should hope that Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination. Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner should have withdrawn his nomination as well. Especially Timothy Geithner, since he will oversee taxes in the Obama Administration.

Governments require us to pay taxes. Governments should write the tax laws in such ways that the people can read the codes and understand them in a couple of short sittings.

Instead we have a tax code written in the most abominably complex, unclear, and vague varieties of English available. Tax codes represent both the language of entrapping the unaware and the language of hidden benefits for the knowledgeable special interests.

If authorities and reporters had not caught Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner or Tom Daschle in the act of tax fraud, would they have apologized? Would they have expressed feeling public guilt? Would they have paid the back taxes? Of course not. Tax Fiddling remains One of Americans’ favorite economic pastimes. When Americans get away with it, we think we have won the game.

THE CALL TO ACTION

The tax code reforms we need are too obvious for RightAscension to belabor. The question is — will we ever get leaders with enough integrity and courage to make the reforms.