On Monday, the Obama administration announced a plan to cut down on tax evasion by companies employing overseas workers, and with seeming disregard to the obvious hypocrisy, let Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner -- who has tax problems of his own! -- introduce the President to provide the details.
I kid you not!
When media outlets report this announcement and the proposed reforms to the tax code, will they share with readers and viewers the delicious irony inherent in Obama using Geithner as his setup man?
Before answering, consider the following transcript of Geithner's introduction (video embedded right):
Mr. President, when you took office, you promised to reform our tax code so that it would be more simple and more fair for hard-working Americans. And you promised to ensure that our tax dollars would be used to strengthen the American economy, and American competitiveness. Today, we are taking another important step towards those goals by ending indefensible tax-breaks and loopholes which allow some companies and some well-off citizens to evade the rules that the rest of America lives by. We believe in a level playing field. Unfortunately, we have a tax code which gives businesses that invest and create jobs overseas a competitive advantage over those who invest and create jobs at home. In a global economy, we need American companies to compete in overseas markets. But we will no longer provide tax incentives that disadvantage American innovation and American workers. Today, the President will announce a series of measures to reform deferral rules that encourage overseas investment, to eliminate loopholes that allow companies to legally avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes, and to crack down on the abuse of tax havens by individuals. These are critical steps in reforming our tax laws, and improving enforcement. And along side these measures, the Internal Revenue Service, under the strong and able leadership of Commissioner Doug Schulman, are making an unprecedented effort to upgrade and strengthen enforcement capacity. The President's budget will add up to 800 full-time IRS employees devoted to detecting and bringing to justice those who unlawfully hide assets and income.
Given Geithner's own tax problems revealed after Obama nominated him as Treasury Secretary, was it a good idea to have him do today's introduction?
Or is it a safe play for the President as his adoring media mightn't be willing to point out the hypocrisy?
Stay tuned.
—Noel Sheppard is the Associate Editor of NewsBusters. Follow him at Facebook and Twitter.
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Comments Policy
LOL, NS
May 4, 2009 - 11:29 ET by BlondeAt least four of us did....B & I absolutely hooted when Fox covered it live (see my comment at the time)....Rush opened his show with it, and you just posted it.
So yeah. it's ironic. Deliciously so. I think Alanis needs to pen a few more lines, too.
I hope he fails, too.
New Tax method...
May 4, 2009 - 16:28 ET by grumpyoldbLet's do it the way Geithner does..... Just not pay it....
Nope
May 4, 2009 - 11:29 ET by serfer62Big Media is beyound irony...and reason too
"Today, we are taking
May 4, 2009 - 11:42 ET by nofateThis is a joke, right? I know I'm laughing my a$$ off. A "level playing field"???
When will they round up Geithner? You've heard of a hunger strike? Well, I'm going on a breath holding strike until they nail that weaselly little SOB. Not.
I'll go for the second choice. If the MSM points out the hypocrisy, it would be a real surprise.
"The future is not set. There is no fate but what we make for ourselves."
michaelyon-online.com
Read the exerpt and
May 4, 2009 - 11:44 ET by Dan The Man 2Read the exerpt and scowled. evade the rules that the rest of America lives by. We believe in a level playing field I think we all play by the rules as handed down by Congress and a level playing field? I think if we had a level playing field there would not be a graduated tax structure and deductions tailored to favor social engineering.
reform deferral rules that encourage overseas investment, to eliminate loopholes that allow companies to legally avoid paying billions of dollars in U.S. taxes, and to crack down on the abuse of tax havens by individuals.
So the Kennedy clan's tax haven are going away? I dont think this applies to the rich who pay for lobbyists.
After all is said and done I will be poorer for it and the two ends will be richer.
Not the only one
May 4, 2009 - 13:13 ET by expatriotKennedy is not the only one. Are the 800 going to go after the elected representatives? I think not. How about King George Soros? Anyone going after his off shore accounts?
I will answer my own question and the answer is NO!
our tax dollars would be used to strengthen the American economy
May 4, 2009 - 11:50 ET by JDWOne must realize the effort to make all money government's money
JDW
DAILY WAVE
When people fear their government there is tyranny. When government fears the people there is liberty.
Timmy Turbo Tax better be glad he works for the statists...
May 4, 2009 - 11:50 ET by R D Helm...because if he worked for a conservative POTUS this would be all we would be hearing about for the rest of the week.
He would probably even make one of Keithie's Worst Person's lists.
-Dave
This coup has gone on long enough. The time to put it down is NOW.
Will media see the
May 4, 2009 - 11:57 ET by Right2thePointWill media see the bias?
Only if someone has sent them all in to have plexiglass belly buttons installed.
Of course, they'll see it. They just won't report it.
May 4, 2009 - 12:18 ET by farstar99Their Fuehrer wouldn't allow it.
"Liberals"
May 4, 2009 - 12:25 ET by iveseenitallAs I watched Geithner I couldn't help but ask myself if I live on the same planet as these people. A tax cheat lecturing about cheating on tax returns! Is this is complete insanity or what?
I turned off the t.v. I turn on the radio and hear that if you have more than $10,000 in credit card debt, the government has just bailed you out. Sure, pay back just pennies on the dollar yourself. Let law-abiding, responsible people like me pay the rest.
Our government continues to insult and destroy our once-great nation.
NEVER,NEVER trust a "liberal"
this is a trick question!
May 4, 2009 - 12:23 ET by katainkentHold on ‘cause the world will turn if you're ready or not ~ KT Tunstall
800 New IRS Agents?
May 4, 2009 - 12:28 ET by pcantidoteSomehow I knew that more government would be the solution. How about we reduce or eliminate corporate income taxes? That will reduce or eliminate the need for the IRS, eliminate the desire of companies to move business overeseas for tax motivated reasons, and encourage foreign businesses to set up shop here. Instead we have a punitive system that forces business away in order to survive. Can you say Fairtax?
-Reject ALL incumbents in 2010-
Do as I say..... All
May 4, 2009 - 12:52 ET by ConservativeRexDo as I say.....
All along I have written that libs do not have a sense of irony.
I hope these business' tell Geithner to shove it. Anyone who plays poker ought to identify a bluff. Call 'em on it. That way it get's the hypocrisy out on Front Street. Let these Socialist defend that.
The Media
May 4, 2009 - 13:06 ET by ConcernedOnenever paints ANYTHING honestly, so I don't know how in the world they would get the irony in little timmy geithners tax reform.
800 full time IRS employees? That's exactly why we need a flat tax. Yes, lets pay MORE tax dollars to fund the IRS, who turns around and tries to squeeze even more pennies out of your paycheck, bank account, retirement, savings, stocks....U NAME IT!
Geithner is yet another lying sack of ____ in the NObama administration. And it is a crime that he is the Treasury Secretary. No one in the government, let alone this administration, seems to care about abiding by the law OR the Constitution. It's a free-for-all and it's just the beginning of the end of our democracy and OUR country.
ConcernedOne
This has to be some sort of elaborate mass psychology experiment
May 4, 2009 - 14:38 ET by Lord ErondThey trot out this ridiculous lefty who's so broadly out of touch with most NORMAL Americans and American thought who brings in this jackass who cheated on his taxes and now wants to make recommendations against tax evaders?
I'm waiting for the doctors to come in and tell me this was an experiment in studying how long the average person could stand there and listen to all this before going completely and totally insane.
"They'll know we were right in the end"
-Harry Potter, The Order of the Phoenix-
John Edwards' Two Americas
May 4, 2009 - 15:58 ET by GalvanicThere are those of us who pay our taxes, and those who, like Geithner and Daschle, do not.
Is this what Obama means?
May 5, 2009 - 10:06 ET by CobraMan"We believe in a level playing field. Unfortunately, we have a tax code which gives businesses that invest and create jobs overseas a competitive advantage over those who invest and create jobs at home."
That's right, and those "overseas" business pay taxes twice, back here in America AND in whichever country they're providing employment and/or services! The "Americans Only" companies do not. So, Obama will INSIST that those "overseas" companies don't have to pay those extra, overseas taxes, right? Right?
The Citizens of each State shall be entitled to all Privileges and Immunities of Citizens in the several States.
The US Constitution
Unless you're a fetus.
The US Supreme Court
800 new full-time IRS employees
May 5, 2009 - 16:10 ET by Old SaltSo the government grows by another 800; where will these new employees come from?