I have read a lot of stories recently about cancelled junkets to Los Vegas and elsewhere. The cancellers are recipients of government bail outs and the public, rightfully outraged about the need for and/or usefulness of the bailouts, made a fuss about the lavish plans.
Our political class, which gave away the money with no restrictions that I am aware of, suddenly becomes outraged. Righteous indignation abounds.
Who doesn't know that if you give someone a bag of money with no instructions on how it is to be spent it may not be spent the way you might have hoped. Blame the givers, not the givees.
I would suggest that we all take a step back and ask ourselves what difference it makes how the money is spent. The point is, it has to be spent. Spending a few million in a Las Vega resort is a far better and more direct stimulus than keeping it in the bank's vault.
Thursday, February 05, 2009
Wednesday, February 04, 2009
Confessing to Strategic not Moral Errors
Obama confessed to a "mistake" today. He will quickly learn that the leader of the free world does not make such confessions.
In reading MSM coverage of the Daschle debacle it is noteworthy that nowhere (as far as I have seen) is his "mistake" called what it is: A willing, knowing effort to illegally avoid paying income taxes. Can anyone really believe that after a million years in Congress he wasn't aware of the rules? Nonsense. How much time do Senators spend crafting ethics laws and dealing with what is and is not income to them so that they can endeavor to pay as little income tax as possible? How long was he a Senator. What a lying sack of crap.
Obama actually is admitting only to a strategic error, not the moral error of considering a tax cheat an appropriate candidate for a US cabinet position. Of course, we already knew that, didn't we.
Mr. Geithner also made a "mistake". Yes, of course he did. After having signed an agreement with his employer, IMF, that clearly stated that he understood he was being paid a sum that was to be passed on to the government in payment of Social Security and Medicare taxes he kept the money. His Turbo Tax error argument has been strongly rebutted by Turbo Tax and a zillion "experts".
Here too, Obama admits to a strategic error, not the moral error of considering a tax cheat an appropriate candidate for a US cabinet position. Irony of ironies, we now have a willful, knowing tax cheat as the Treasury Secretary.
Now that is Change!
In reading MSM coverage of the Daschle debacle it is noteworthy that nowhere (as far as I have seen) is his "mistake" called what it is: A willing, knowing effort to illegally avoid paying income taxes. Can anyone really believe that after a million years in Congress he wasn't aware of the rules? Nonsense. How much time do Senators spend crafting ethics laws and dealing with what is and is not income to them so that they can endeavor to pay as little income tax as possible? How long was he a Senator. What a lying sack of crap.
Obama actually is admitting only to a strategic error, not the moral error of considering a tax cheat an appropriate candidate for a US cabinet position. Of course, we already knew that, didn't we.
Mr. Geithner also made a "mistake". Yes, of course he did. After having signed an agreement with his employer, IMF, that clearly stated that he understood he was being paid a sum that was to be passed on to the government in payment of Social Security and Medicare taxes he kept the money. His Turbo Tax error argument has been strongly rebutted by Turbo Tax and a zillion "experts".
Here too, Obama admits to a strategic error, not the moral error of considering a tax cheat an appropriate candidate for a US cabinet position. Irony of ironies, we now have a willful, knowing tax cheat as the Treasury Secretary.
Now that is Change!
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