{"id":218,"date":"2009-01-31T11:28:52","date_gmt":"2009-01-31T11:28:52","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/blog.beliefnet.com\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/dump-daschle-howard-dean-for.html"},"modified":"2009-01-31T11:28:52","modified_gmt":"2009-01-31T11:28:52","slug":"dump-daschle-howard-dean-for","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/2009\/01\/dump-daschle-howard-dean-for.html","title":{"rendered":"Dump Daschle – Howard Dean for Health and Human Services"},"content":{"rendered":"

Tom Daschle, President Obama’s pick to run the sprawling Department of Health and Human Services, also has some tax issues<\/a>:<\/p>\n

\n

Daschle
\nfiled amended tax returns for 2005, 2006 and 2007 to reflect additional
\nincome for consulting work, the use of a car service and reduced
\ndeductions for charitable contributions<\/span>. He filed the returns after Obama announced he intended to nominate Daschle to head the Health and Human Services Department<\/span>.<\/p>\n

Most
\nof the additional taxes resulted from unreported income from the use of
\na car service provided him by a close friend and business associate, Leo Hindery Jr<\/span>. The unreported income for that service totaled more than $250,000 over three years.<\/p>\n

Daschle
\nalso had unreported consulting income of $88,333, in 2007. He also had
\nreductions to charitable contributions totaling about $15,000 over the
\nthree years covered, according to the Senate Finance Committee document<\/span>. The document, marked “Confidential Draft,” is a committee statement concerning Daschle’s nomination.<\/p>\n<\/blockquote>\n

The White House insists that this “stupid mistake” won’t derail the nomination<\/a>, as does the Democratic leadership<\/a>. But given that Obama’s (self-imposed, strictest in history) lobbyist rules are also getting bent a bit<\/a>, the tax flap is giving critics of the Administration plenty of ammunition to gleefully play with. Going to bat for Daschle invites a lot of distraction from the aggressive domestic agenda that Obama seeks to implement, and Daschle (a veteran Senator with many post-Senate “consulting” affiliations and other associations) may simply have too much baggage to be effective in pushing that agenda through. The sheen of technocratic comptence that is so critical to building popular support for bold policy starts to wear thin when your Cabinet picks keep making “stupid mistakes” (direct quote from an unnamed White House upper-up).<\/p>\n

What was Daschle’s qualification for HHS, anyway? I am aware of his legislative record and policy expertise, but Daschle remains firmly within the old guard of the Democratic Party, the same generation as John Kerry (whose nomination for president didn’t exactly light a fire under America’s collective consciousness). It’s great to have the grizzled voices of experience and senior expertise in the diplomatic sphere (which is why I applaud the choice of Holbrooke and Mitchell as envoys – under Secretary Clinton’s direction). But in terms of executive leadership, we need new blood. <\/p>\n

The argument for Howard Dean as Secretary of Health and Human Services is quite straightforward. He’s a medical doctor, and has more executive experience than anyone else in Congress or the White House. In his six terms as Governor of Vermont<\/a> he paid off the state’s public debt, expanded health insurance<\/a> for children, lowered taxes, signed civil unions into law, and delivered a balanced budget every year. And of course as Chairman of the DNC he implemented the 50-state strategy<\/a> that gave Obama the foundation for victory. <\/p>\n

The only reason Dean wasn’t tapped for HHS outright? Rahm Emmanuel, who bitterly opposed the 50-state strategy that brought his new boss to victory. As I mentioned earlier<\/a>, Dean’s name was excluded from consideration<\/a> quite early on, citing Dean’s “partisan background” and lack of congressional experience. That argument is total nonsense<\/a> – and applies far more to Daschle than it does to Dean anyway. <\/p>\n

It’s time to acknowledge that Howard Dean is the right choice for HHS.<\/p><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

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City of Brass is his weblog, which was founded in 2002 under the name UNMEDIA. He is a co-founder of the annual Brass Crescent Awards. The name City of Brass refers to the Story of the City of Brass in the Thousand and One Nights, and the poem by Rudyard Kipling of the same name: Here was a people whom, after their works, thou shalt see wept over for their lost dominion; And in this palace is the last information respecting lords collected in the dust. -- Thousand and One Nights, Story of the City of Brass IN A land that the sand overlays, the ways to her gates are untrod, A multitude ended their days whose fates were made splendid by God, Till they grew drunk and were smitten with madness and went to their fall, And of these is a story written: but Allah Alone knoweth all! -- Rudyard Kipling, The City of Brass (1909)"}]}},"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/165"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=218"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/218\/revisions"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=218"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=218"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.beliefnet.com\/columnists\/cityofbrass\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=218"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}