Reforming Washington Is Just A Campaign Game

The rhetoric of each Presidential election cycle leads you to believe that real change is coming to the Washington beltway. The Presidential candidate of the party that is out of power always promises to change the dubious ways things work inside the beltway.

Each campaign the voting public is assured of ethics reform. Change is always coming to Washington D.C. and those evil lobbyists will no longer wield more power than the public. All the slogans and sound bites make for great election year rhetoric but the end result of our national elections is always the same. One of the major political party achieves more power and gain and ethics in Washington never really does change.

The recent election is just the latest example that the reform of Washington is just a campaign game. Barack Obama's said during the recent Presidential campaign that: Washington's "entire culture" in which "our leaders have thrown open the doors of Congress and the White House to an army of Washington lobbyists who have turned our government into a game only they can afford to play." Obama vowed to "close the revolving door" and "clean up both ends of Pennsylvania Avenue" with "the most sweeping ethics reform in history."

Certainly, it all sounded good during the recent election campaign but after Inauguration Day, the Obama campaign of change has changed. Apparently, ethics reform now means just more of the same as the troubling background of Barack Obama nominees continue to gain political fame.

The President was still "absolutely" standing behind former Senator Tom Daschle as his nominee for Health and Human Services Secretary even as the New York Times was calling for his withdrawal.

The following quote from the Times editorial outlined the problem: " Mr. Daschle is another in a long line of politicians who move cozily between government and industry. We don’t know that his industry ties would influence his judgments on health issues, but they could potentially throw a cloud over health care reform

As the controversy about his background as a health care lobbyist continues, Daschle was meeting with leading Senators to explain his failure to pay all his taxes. He told them that he had "no excuse" and wanted to "deeply apologize" for his failure to pay $128,000 in U.S. taxes.

The sad fact is that cheating on taxes is nothing new for nominees of this administration. The Secretary of the Treasury, Tim Geithner failed to pay self-employment taxes for money he earned while working for the International Monetary Fund from 2001 to 2003. In 2006, the IRS notified him that he owed $14,847 in self-employment taxes and $2,383 in penalties from 2003 and 2004. He didn't pay up until just before his nomination.

Then, there was Nancy Killefer who was the nominee for performance Czar of the federal government before she was forced to withdraw due to her tax issues. She failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help.

The Obama administration has already hired more than seventeen lobbyists and dubious errors on tax returns have been an acceptable background for its nominees. Reforming Washington sounds great during national elections but it is just a campaign game played by Republican and Democratic Presidential candidates every four years.

http://www.eworldvu.com

Update on Tuesday, February 3, 2009 at 01:58PM by Jim Smith

Daschle Withdraw As Nominee For HHS Secretary

WASHINGTON (AP) - Tom Daschle withdrew his nomination on Tuesday to be President Barack Obama's Health and Human Services secretary, dealing potential blows to both speedy health care reform and Obama's hopes for a smoother start as president.

"Now we must move forward," Obama said in a written statement accepting "with sadness and regret" Daschle's surprise request to be removed from consideration. A day earlier, Obama had said he "absolutely" stood by Daschle in the face of problems over back taxes and potential conflicts of interest.

Official: Performance czar withdraws candidacy

WASHINGTON (AP) - Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, has withdrawn her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government, the White House said Tuesday.

Killefer was the second major Obama administration nominee to withdraw and the third to have tax problems complicate their nomination after President Barack Obama announced their selection.

"Nancy Killefer has decided to withdraw her nomination, and we accepted her withdrawal," Tommy Vietor, a White House spokesman, said Tuesday. The 55-year-old executive with consulting giant McKinsey & Co., was expected to explain her reasons for pulling out later in the day.