Is This Guy for Real?

Posted By Bobby Eberle On January 22, 2009 at 7:18 am

Now that the Senate has rolled over and confirmed Hillary Clinton as secretary of state without so much as a whimper, attention now turns to the confirmation hearing of Tim Geithner. This man was tapped by Obama to be our new treasury secretary... you know... the organization to which you pay your taxes each year. However, it seems that Geithner himself has a hard time paying taxes... several years worth.

Considering that other cabinet-level picks have been rejected and scrutinized for far less serious actions, there is no way that Geithner should be confirmed. Republican senators must make a stand. The media is treating all Obama picks as golden, even if they have more baggage than a Greyhound bus. So, it comes down to the Republicans in the Senate to make the case.

As noted in a Wednesday AP news story on GOPUSA, "Obama's decision to select Geithner was widely seen as an effort by the new administration to hit the ground running in dealing with the country's economic woes."

The story goes on and on about the state of the economy and Obama's efforts to further inject government into it. Only at the end does the "news" piece actually go into the meat of the story, which is Geithner's failure to pay his taxes. Seems like any Obama pick is good enough for the media.

Some senators are stepping forward, however, in order to make sense of Geithner's inactions. As noted in the Washington Post's coverage of the Senate hearing, Sen. Jon Kyl (R-AZ) went after Geithner with a careful array of questions.

It was about a 20-question exchange that could best be described as restrained but intense. Unlike Sen. Jim Bunning's (R-Ky.) attack on Geithner's handling of his taxes, which was mostly bombast, Kyl's was more surgical, as he tried to get Geithner to admit to one thing: You made the same mistakes on your 2001 and 2002 taxes as you did on your 2003 and 2004 taxes, which you corrected -- at any time before being asked to be Treasury secretary did you think to go back and pay your back taxes from '01 and '02?

In other words, would you have come clean on your whole tax bill had you not been selected to be Treasury secretary?

In one exchange, Kyl asked, "Isn't it a fact that you immediately or very quickly realized that the same mistake you made in 2003 and '04 was probably made in '01 and 02 but the statute of limitations had run out and you didn't have to pay taxes for the other years?"

As noted by the Post, "Geithner responded the same way as he had all day: It was a mistake, the IRS told me I had fulfilled my obligation, I should have caught it."

Obama called Geithner's tax problems an "innocent mistake." Come on! The man made the same mistake on his taxes for years, gets caught on it for the last two, but doesn't correct it for years which he knows are bad too?

In addition, as history shows, following the stock market crash of 1929, unemployment spiked in the next month, but as 1930 went on, unemployment was steadily coming back down. However, the government stepped in with massive programs, and the country fell into the Great Depression.

So, how does Geithner feel about government and the economy? Check out his statement to the Senate Finance Committee for some clues:

First, we must act quickly to provide substantial support for economic recovery and to get credit flowing again.

The tragic history of financial crises is a history of failures by governments to act with the speed and force commensurate with the severity of the crisis. If our policy response is tentative and incrementalist, if we do not demonstrate by our actions a clear and consistent commitment to do what is necessary to solve the problem, then we risk greater damage to living standards, to the economy’s productive potential, and to the fabric of our financial system.

Senators, the ultimate costs of this crisis will be greater, if we do not act with sufficient strength now.

America does not need Geithner in government. Obama's pick to run the treasury should be rejected. The tax issues alone should disqualify him. His philosophical embracing of big government is an added reason.

Remember the Senate hearings for John Ashcroft? The man had a stellar reputation, and he was relentlessly criticized simply for being conservative. Here's a big-government liberal who also has a problem paying his taxes, and the media and Obama expect us to give him a pass. Wrong! Come on, Senate Republicans! It's time to say no to Geithner.