The Underground Conservative

Ever wonder why main street Republicans and conservatives are thoroughly fed up with the Inside-the-Beltway Republicans in Washington, D.C.?

Look no further than the linguini-spined GOP reaction to the nomination of an admitted tax cheat to be Secretary of the Treasury, the department which happens to oversee the IRS.

WASHINGTON, Jan 15 (al-Reuters) – The top Republican on the Senate Finance Committee said on Thursday he was not aware of any Republicans who planned to vote against Timothy Geithner to head the Treasury Department because of his failure to pay taxes.

“From talking to my colleagues on the Republican side, and I haven’t talked to all of them … I have not found people who are going to vote against him based upon just the income tax issue,” Sen. Charles Grassley of Iowa told National Public Radio in an interview.

He said there was bipartisan agreement on Geithner’s qualifications for the job and the need for someone of his caliber “at a time when we have all the economic problems we have.”

Imagine if you will the following scenario: in December 2000, President-elect George W. Bush nominates a prominent Republican who hadn’t paid his federal income taxes in five years. Can you imagine the squawking from the Democrats on Capitol Hill? The poor guy would have been DOA. It would have been 24/7 news coverage on how anyone can get away without paying a lick of federal taxes — income, Social Security or Medicare — yet expects to run a department that oversees the very agency that serves as the nation’s tax collector.

That’s what Geithner is accused of doing. He paid nary a lick of federal taxes while working at the World Bank/IMF, yet he somehow managed to be reimbursed for those unpaid taxes.

From Byron York at NRO:

Documents released by the Senate Finance Committee strongly suggest that Geithner knew, or should have known, what he was doing when he did not pay self-employment taxes in 2001, 2002, 2003, and 2004. After his failure to pay was discovered, first by the IRS and later during the vetting process, Geithner paid the federal government a total of $42,702 in taxes and interest.

The IMF did not withhold state and federal income taxes or self-employment taxes — Social Security and Medicare — from its employees’ paychecks. But the IMF took great care to explain to those employees, in detail and frequently, what their tax responsibilities were. First, each employee was given the IMF Employee Tax Manual. Then, employees were given quarterly wage statements for the specific purpose of calculating taxes. Then, they were given year-end wage statements. And then, each IMF employee was required to file what was known as an Annual Tax Allowance Request. Geithner received all those documents.

The tax allowance has turned out to be a key part of the Geithner situation. This is how it worked. IMF employees were expected to pay their taxes out of their own money. But the IMF then gave them an extra allowance, known as a “gross-up,” to cover those tax payments. This was done in the Annual Tax Allowance Request, in which the employee filled out some basic information — marital status, dependent children, etc. — and the IMF then estimated the amount of taxes the employee would owe and gave the employee a corresponding allowance.

At the end of the tax allowance form were the words, “I hereby certify that all the information contained herein is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and that I will pay the taxes for which I have received tax allowance payments from the Fund.” Geithner signed the form. He accepted the allowance payment. He didn’t pay the tax. For several years in a row.

It’s bend over and grab your ankles time, folks.

I’m already sick and tired — was the night of the election already — of people on my side of the political spectrum lecturing us as to how we needed to wish The Messiah well, get behind Him, hope He succeeds. Support Him when He is right, oppose Him when He is wrong. Blah, blah, blah. Yada, yada, yada.

Folks, He … is … a … socialist. A socialist. I don’t want a socialist to succeed. I hope He fails. Miserably.

I’m with Rush Limbaugh here. On his show today, El Rushbo told the story of how some publication asked him to submit in 400 words what his hopes were for Our Savior’s Thousand Year Reign in light of His Anointment to the Throne. Rush said it in four words:

I hope He fails.

I couldn’t have said it better myself. I hope He fails, and goddamn any Republican or faux conservative who helps advance His goal and that of the other socialists Democrats of making America a socialist nation.