Geithner sets too-big-to-fail precedent

A new bad example for America.

The taxes he didn't pay aren't that important. It's not like he made millions on deals and tried to hide them. That's the kind of tax fraud that matters to me. The amount of his slippage is really insignificant, and it's about social security and medicaid, not about income.

This guy is never going to need SS or medicaid anyway. It's ridiculous for him to get grilled on these insignificant tax issues.

My main fear about any of the economic team guys is that they won't have the guts to put in the Wall Street regulations that we need, the ones that the Bushie Republicans stripped out over the years. What needs to be nationalized should be nationalized. That's the worry. Not this petty tax stuff.

Imagine a politican make a mistake, taking a shortcut or fudging facts........Like that's never happened before! At least he can remember what happened five or six years ago. I seem to recall another cabinet member of another administration that couldn't remember what happened less than twelve month earlier. Wonder what Gonzo is doing now.

Where does Obama find these people?

Oh...I forgot, he's a democrat from Illinois.

Paulo

Too big to fail? Situational ethics? Sounds like the kind of logic that can lead to warrantless wiretapping.

Too big to fail? If these were "ordinary times" he wouldn't vote for him? Situational ethics of the worst kind.
This proves that we do, indeed, have an elite, political class in America. If you or I would've done this (for four years) we'd not only be audited, we'd probably be in jail. But Tim Geithner gets away with it because he's oh so important. This is scary.

This proves that we do, indeed, have an elite, political class in America.
Posted by: Jeff | January 22, 2009 6:22 PM

That's right Jeffy and you have been cheerleading for the "tax cuts for the rich" Repuglican team louder than anyone on here the last couple of years....except for when you take your long term leaves of absense each and every time after your GOPer team suffers another embarrassing electoral loss.

I dunno who you are, Bill, but some of us have jobs and lives and more productive things to do than spread hate on sites like this.
Tax cuts help everybody and stimulate the economy (just ask Obama) and as usual your response makes no sense. Geithner isn't a republican and half the political class in Washington isn't. Heck, the Illinois combine is full of weasel democrats like Blagojevich and weasel republicans like George Ryan. They all play along to get along.
Daley had one of those few moments where he actually said something constructive today. He said when he went to Washington for the inauguration it was like no one in the whole town knew there was a recession going on. Then he tried to spell the word state S-A-T-E.
The quicker you all learn that political corruption and ESPECIALLY political elitism in Washington aren't partisan but are more about power the closer you'll be to understanding how the real world works. No political party is going to save you. The quicker you dispense with that fantasy the better off you'll be.

Let me understand this:

when times are tough, ethics are irrelevant?

I thought it was the other way around.

The higher the post, the more difficult,

the higher is the standard of ethics to be required.

Jim Cramer had some very bad observations about Geithner.

Way before the tax stuff came out. Substantive things relating to his past performance at NY Fed.

"Imagine a politican make a mistake, taking a shortcut or fudging facts........Like that's never happened before!"
Posted by: kg123 | January 22, 2009 4:56 PM
.
But this is a new era of a NEW kind of honest, clean politics; of government by and for the people instead of by and for the same old oligarchy ...uh... isn't it?

"Sen. Kent Conrad, D-N.D., said that in normal times he would oppose Geithner but "these are not normal times."

... unless he were a Republican.

"Failing to initially pay federal taxes no longer disqualifies someone from becoming Treasury Secretary and overseeing the Internal Revenue Department so long as the economy is in extremis. "

Nope.

The sentence should read: "Failing to initially pay federal taxes no longer disqualifies someone from becoming Treasury Secretary and overseeing the Internal Revenue Department so long as the president is Obama and the nominee is a Democrat."

The taxes he didn't pay aren't that important. It's not like he made millions on deals and tried to hide them. That's the kind of tax fraud that matters to me. The amount of his slippage is really insignificant, and it's about social security and medicaid, not about income.

This guy is never going to need SS or medicaid anyway. It's ridiculous for him to get grilled on these insignificant tax issues.

My main fear about any of the economic team guys is that they won't have the guts to put in the Wall Street regulations that we need, the ones that the Bushie Republicans stripped out over the years. What needs to be nationalized should be nationalized. That's the worry. Not this petty tax stuff.

Posted by: Big Orange Satan | January 22, 2009 3:46 PM

Yeah, the taxes he didn't pay kinda ARE important. He's being looked at for a very important position within the Cabinet. We've just come from a long period where adherence to ethics slipped. I'd want somebody in Geithner's position to be above reproach as regards paying his taxes.
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I WOULD agree that 'fessing up this easily about what he's done, taking responsibility and then taking steps to rectify the situation goes a LOOOOOONG way, but this issue needs to be looked at seriously.