Editor’s Note: The following article has been reprinted from Talking Points Memo. It was written by Robert Reich, former Secretary of Labor under the Clinton Administration. Discussing the news of Daschle’s withdrawal as nominee for the head of the Health and Human Services Dept., Eric commented in an email earlier that the numerous tax issues of Obama appointees point to the 8th house. The 8th house is the house of “death, taxes and secrets…and a void of course Moon in Scorpio for the inauguration would qualify. If I recall it is very close to the 8th house. Also, this is all going on around eclipses and was mostly enacted initially with Mercury retrograde. Nothing will turn out as planned, and now we’re seeing this in action.”
Nancy Killefer, Obama’s choice for chief White House performance officer, withdrew hours before Daschle, and also cited tax “arrears.” And the new treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, had issues with his taxes as well. Who likes to pay taxes? Well, I guess nobody does. (As an aside, I highly recommend the New York Times gallery “Obama’s People,” a collection of photographs of Obama’s presumed administration by Nadav Kander. His photograph of Tom Daschle can be viewed below.) –Rachel Asher
Tom Daschle’s surprise withdrawal today shocked most Washington insiders — after all, Daschle had been a key figure in the Senate, was Obama’s pick for a major role in the new administration, would very likely have done a superb job getting a new health-insurance system enacted, and, probably could have mustered enough votes to be confirmed.
So what happened? My guess is that official Washington underestimated the public’s pique at what appeared to be the old ways of Washington. Hill staffers tell me that many offices have been inundated with telephone calls, emails, letters and faxes expressing concern (to put it mildly) about Daschle — not only his failure to pay back taxes but his relationships with major players in the health care industry and rich consulting contracts with the private sector since leaving the Senate, and even the fact that he was given a car and driver by one of them.
What’s going on here? Maybe official Washington, much like most of Wall Street, is still not quite getting it.
Typical Americans are hurting very badly right now. They resent people who appear to be living high off a system dominated by insiders with the right connections.
They’ve become increasingly suspicious of the conflicts of interest, cozy relationships, and payoffs that seem to pervade not only official Washington but our biggest banks and corporations. In short, many Americans who have worked hard, saved as much as they can, bought a home, obeyed the law, and paid every cent of taxes that were due are beginning to feel like chumps.