It just keeps getting better

So it now becomes clear why Democrats can be so cavalier about raising taxes - as pointed out by a Republican Congressman this last week, it doesn't seem like any of them pay them in the first place. I'm not just talking about the poor that seem to overwhelmingly vote Democrat. I'm talking about the limousine liberals - the ones making upwards of 6 figures. You know, the "rich." Maybe Obama should reconsider his great plans to finance his massive spending proposals by increasing taxes on the "rich." If the actions of people like Timothy Geithner and Tom Daschle are any indication, he might not be bringing in that much more revenue - at least not unless they start nominating every rich person for a cabinet position, in which case they all seem to come to the realization that they made a few "innocent mistakes" on their taxes.

Daschle is the latest, and he makes Geithner look like a choir boy. Multiply the amount that Geithner shorted the IRS by 3, and you have the amount of money that Daschle "forgot" to pay in a 3-year period. Over $100K. How many people out there make over $100K in a year? And of course, Daschle only thinks to pay the money once he has already accepted the nomination to Secretary of HHS. Geithner was forgiven his "innocent mistake" of ~$40K because, supposedly, this genius of financial wisdom was for some reason essential to righting the economy, and nobody else could do the job - scary that, with as brilliant as he was supposed to be, he couldn't do his own taxes. So how do you make a similar argument for Daschle? His only experience is being a Senator and a lobbyist. I find it hard to believe that makes him indispensable for the position at HHS - especially since he showed no particular skills in this area while serving in the Senate.

Which brings me to my next question. Obama was going to run a more ethical ship than Bush. One of his first actions was to proclaim some of the strongest prohibitions against lobbyists in his administration that we have ever seen. But Daschle has been a lobbyist ever since he left the Senate. He has been lobbying for groups that stand to benefit hugely were he to head HHS. His wife is a long-time lobbyist.

I'm sorry - where is all this evidence regarding how brilliant our new president is? If his selections for his cabinet considered, the evidence is pretty thin - Daschle, Richardson, Holder, Geithner.

Finally, it is nice to see Republicans regaining their feet. They have absolutely no power right now in the House, and their ability to filibuster in the Senate is hanging on by the thinnest of threads. And yet they are winning the PR war over the "stimulus" bill. I shouldn't get too excited, because House Democrats made it a pretty easy target. I'm not sure how payouts to Filipino veterans of WWII - in the Philippines - is going to stimulate our economy. Or how money to prevent STDs is going to stimulate anything - at least financially speaking. The master stroke was to come up with their own plan, and then evaluate it based on criteria espoused by one of Obama's own chief economic advisors - and having their plan cost less and stimulate more job production than the House bill that Obama supports. The result? Republicans continue to talk tough, and Democrats - especially Senate Democrats - are already on the defensive, talking about how, obviously, certain things will need to be cut. Whatever happened to the wonderful stimulus bill that Obama promised us, that would be free of any earmarks? Is this the kind of Hope and Change we were promised?