Posted 9:16 AM by steve

Two thoughts come to mind regarding Tom Daschle's not having paid over $100,000 in taxes...

First, what Daschle did wasn't anything out of the ordinary, at least for people who have the ability to do what he did. EVERYBODY (except for a noble few) would like to not have to report and pay taxes on income they receive. For most people, that's hard to do as all of their income is reported to the IRS via W4s and 1099s. For guys like Daschle, who are compensated in all sorts of ways, it is a lot easier to have income that isn't reported. And when one has income that isn't reported, one tends not to report that income. Daschle had an opportunity to get away with something and, but for the scrutiny he received as a Cabinet nominee, would have gotten away with it.

Second, just how much money is the guy making and/or just how clueless is he that $83,000 in consulting income went unreported because of a clerical error? Most people know how much they make (within the nearest dollar) and leaving $83,000 off a return ought to have sent up a red flag ('I could have sworn I made more money than that last year').... unless of course, Daschle was making so much money that $83,000 was an insignificant portion of his total income for the year... and if he was, it would show that while he 'could' be excused for not having included a trivial amount of income on his return, he was simply another pig making money off his prior time in Congress.