Just as folks around here started getting ready for a special election, announcing their plans to run for the soon-to-be-empty Congressional seat, and congratulating each other for knowing a guy who will be serving in the Cabinet, the New York Times comes along and applies the brakes.
The Times’ Jennifer Steinhauer revealed in an article entitled Trump Budget Nominee Did Not Pay Taxes for Employee that Mulvaney told the Senate Budget Committee “I have come to learn during the confirmation review process that I failed to pay FICA and federal and state unemployment taxes on a household employee for the years 2000-2004.”
Oops.
The taxes were due for a nanny, according to an article from Politico’s Seung Min Kim, precisely the same issue that derailed Bill Clinton’s nomination for Attorney General, Zoe Baird, and the woman that was Clinton’s second choice, Federal judge Kimba Wood. Other Cabinet picks have likewise had step aside from their nominations because of similar issues, including former Senator Tom Daschle, who neglected to pay taxes for a personal driver and declined to be further considered as President Obama’s Health and Human Services secretary.
So this has happened before, and it’s never ended well for a nominee.
As it turns out, Mulvaney has faced questions regarding his payment (or non-payment, as the case may be) of taxes before. In 2013, a blogger discovered that Mick Mulvaney had owed thousands of dollars in back taxes for as long as five years. The website wonkette.com picked up the story, but it barely made a ripple during the negotiations for raising the debt ceiling.
Mulvaney is nothing if not consistant, advocating for the country not to pay its bills while he neglects paying his own.
He sounds like a perfect choice to be put in charge of things like procurement and Federal financial management, doesn’t he?
You can see Mulvaney’s Public Financial Disclosure Report here.
Do you know something about Mick Mulvaney that I don’t know? Get in touch. But do it soon: his confirmation hearing is scheduled for Tuesday, January 24.