Obama's Nominee for Performance Czar Drops Out Amid Personal Tax Issues

Another hand-picked nominee of Barack Obama has withdrawn a nomination as a result of personal tax delinquencies and errors. It's difficult to believe that this problem is so common among the elite of Washington, DC, but the irony has become pretty humorous. In this particular instance, Nancy Killefer, Obama's pick to become the "performance czar" for the federal government, failed to pay unemployment taxes on household help in the years following her service in the Clinton administration.

And although the mounting tax drama that seems to surround every Obama selection is troubling, you have to give his transition team credit for catching errors and disclosing them immediately. The problem is that the selections are so inefficient and unorganized as to have created these issues in the first place. Are these really the people most qualified to lead some of the most important aspects of our government?

And to anyone familiar with how these tax issues can arise, you really have to go out of your way to miss something or ignore the multitude of notices and warnings that are sent before a lien is filed - as was the case with Killefer. In her case, granted, the sum was small - only a few hundred dollars of actual unpaid tax. But the fact that it was allowed to happen at all is horribly troubling. Someone in her position should have an accountant or bookkeeper that is competent to handle such things. Or, if she chooses not to, then she has be on top of it. It's that simple. There really is no excuse. And she's just the latest. The two previous gaffes are just as embarrassing and even more troubling.