Thursday, January 22, 2009

They Float Above Us


When I was in high school, my classmates said I thought up dump things to argue about. I did not agree that I thought up dumb things to argue about, but I did think of things to argue. Here is one for today.

The nomination of Tim Geithner for Secretary of the Treasury and the nomination of Hillary Clinton for Secretary of State bothers me. I think President Obama knows smart people when he meets and works with them, but I do not like smart people that think they are above the law.

Forgetting to pay your taxes happens to lots of people, but they usually do not get asked to be Secretary of the Treasury. The Clintons have a foundation that does a lot of good work. The problem is that foreign donations to the foundation by wealthy foreign individuals on behalf of their country could create the appearance that our Federal Government is for sale, or at least that money can buy influence, or access to influence.

I know that the young boy that walked the streets of Indonesia and grew up to become our 44th President does not need any appearance of wrong doing in his administration. I just wish that he could have started with a clean slate. President Obama deserves no less.

I guess what bothers me about this is that in my life, I have met people that think the laws are for the masses, not them. They are smarter than 99% of the people so they are above the law. I have seen that attitude before. While we in the United States do not have royalty by birth, there is an attitude that there is a type of royalty by education, position or money.

I believe the Obama administration wants to level the playing field, but leveling the playing field needs to start with that 1% that thinks they are royalty and float above the law.

Stay tuned.

5 comments:

winslow said...

I agree. Obama seems to have selected Hilary to pacify her, but I believe she should have remained a NY senator. I am very troubled by her husband's influence on her. Also, I will never forget the Whitewater incident when she stated "I forgot what happened". Nobody with that much education and attained position "forgets" what they did. (this is our America today!)

Geithner is another story. He deliberately did not pay his taxes (in addition to his "maid" problem). He seems to me like a "smarty pants" as we used to call them in school.
He and Paulson have made some horrendous bad decisions. Yes, he is smart, but I think Obama is a better judge (then why did he choose Geithner?).
Obama had the opportunity to ask Geithner to step aside. And, if Geithner was a true American, he would have stepped down on his own.
I've worked for others who thought they were always right...and they ended up ruining other people in the process. I do not consider that smart leadership. And LEADERSHIP is what we are short of in America.

moneythoughts said...

I agree, and I hope these two appointments do not come back to hurt Obama's administration. Yes, leadership is definitely needed in Washington after its eight year absence.

Justpeachy said...

Who floats above us?

moneythoughts said...

That group of individuals that think the laws are for the masses, not them. They regard themselves as too smart, too privileged to be bothered by the rule of law that the rest of us follow. However, while they don't respect the rule of law, they demand that the rest of us follow the laws to a T.

Justpeachy said...

Sorry, I guess I was thinking of angels and saints floating above us, so I thought you were going somewhere else with your train of thought.