You have got to be freakin' kidding me...
But apparently, scumbag Senator Chuck Grassley (R-IA) brought the subject up today, and now Max Baucus (D-MO), according to Politico (no link because it's on the Politico 44 site), has called committee members to his office this afternoon to discuss the issue ahead of Geithner’s confirmation hearing.
Again, you have got to be freakin' kidding me...
We're doing this?? We're going there???
Why is it that the most landbound, border-locked states always getting their knickers in a twist about the immigration status of...well, whoever??
I hold the Senator from Iowa, right now, beneath contempt. If this is the kind of crap he wants to pull, then the sooner he retires the better.
Oh, and the Wall Street Journal has it too. (I thought they'd championed Geithner's appointment like a month ago??).
A reading of the article in Murdoch seems to tamp down some of the smoke coming from the headlines at TPM and Politico:
According to people familiar with the matter, Mr. Geithner employed a housekeeper whose immigration papers expired during her tenure with Mr. Geithner, currently president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. The woman went on to get a green card to work legally in the country and federal immigration authorities didn't press charges against her, these people said.
The second issue involved taxes due while Mr. Geithner worked for the International Monetary Fund between 2001 and 2004. As an employee, Mr. Geithner was technically considered self-employed and was required to pay Social Security and Medicare taxes for himself as both an employer and an employee.
He apparently failed to do so, resulting in Internal Revenue Service audits his last two years at the IMF. As soon as the IRS brought the issue to his attention, he paid the taxes with interest, these people said.
It's unclear how much of an impediment these issues will be to Mr. Geithner's nomination. On its merits, his ascension has been widely praised. Mr. Geithner spent most of his career managing government responses to financial crises, from the 1990s bailouts of Mexico, Indonesia and Korea, to the market meltdown that has brought Wall Street to its knees.
But wait, Murdoch continues:
Obama aides said they didn't believe these issues would present a problem, given the minor nature of the infractions and the gravity of the role he has been nominated to take.
On the tax front, Mr. Geithner's oversight is not uncommon. The IRS has mandated loose rules for U.S.-born IMF employees unaware of their obligations to pay payroll taxes.
Sen. Baucus nonetheless decided to hold a closed-door meeting to allow the two matters to be aired before Mr. Geithner's public confirmation hearing.
"It's important that I talk to senators, which I'm going to be doing," Sen. Baucus said as he went into the meeting.
Democratic senators plan to defend Mr. Geithner, saying that the nature of the complaints pale in comparison to the gravity of the crises he has been asked to face, a severe economic recession, turmoil in the financial markets and the collapse of the U.S. auto industry.
