ABOUT CNBC GUEST BLOG
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Schork Oil Outlook: Gas Bulls Pinning Hopes on Mother Nature
- Busch: The Debt-Interest Rate Paradox
- Busch: Markets Smell a Country Rat
- Schork Oil Outlook: Mission Impossible For The Bears?
- Losey: Asset Allocation At Retirement
- Farrell: Obama Hectored, Ignored and Restricted?
- Don't Dwell on Investment Mistakes; Move on, Like Buffett
- Hirschhorn: Greed...or Fear
- Schork Oil Outlook: Some New Hope For Nat Gas Bulls
MOST SHARED
- No Thanksgiving Rest for Retailers in Sales Race
- US Markets Bracing for Selloff On Worries About Dubai's Debt
- UK's Darling to Downgrade 2009 Growth Forecast
- Attraction of Switzerland to Businesses
- More Asia Executives Resigned to Economy Flights: Survey
- ING Prices Share Issue at Hefty Discount
- Oil Falls Below $74 on Dubai Default Worries
- Dubai Debt Delays Revive Fear of Financial Crisis
- 4 Thanksgiving Week Buys For Your Portfolio: Market Pros
- There's a 'Great Chance' For a Double-Dip Recession: Strategist
- Revenge of the Gangsta Nerds
- Will TCU See The "Flutie Effect?"
- Retail Earnings and Sales to Improve in Q4: Analyst
- Consumers Catching the Holiday Spirit
- It's Beginning To Look A Lot More Riskless
- Crescenzi: Claims Level Suggests End to Job Losses
- Hedge Funds Take Early Lead in Warren Buffett's 'Big Bet'
- Car Insurance Scofflaws Raise Health Reform Doubt
- Rush Starts as Holiday Shopping Season Revs Up
- US Markets Bracing for Selloff on Dubai Debt Worries
- US Dollar Falls to 14-Year Low Against the Yen
- ING Prices Share Issue at Hefty Discount
- UK's Darling to Downgrade 2009 Growth Forecast
- Tommy Hilfiger's Estate in Conn. Sells for $20 Million
- Cheap Robotic Hamsters Are Holiday's Unlikely Craze
- Fannie Mae to Tighten Lending Standards: Report
RSS FEED
CNBC Guest Blog
Text Size 
I was anxious to be constructive and to give the benefit of the doubt.
I thought it was a technical failure, and mainly useful to make the case for tax simplification.
I didn’t realize in fact that the mis-statement had been outside the state of limitations and therefore didn’t pay up until his nomination.
The Vice President said during the campaign, that wealthy people ought to be patriotic and agree to higher taxes. Then they turn around and elevate a man who DID NOT EVEN PAY TAXES AT THE CURRENT LEVEL, to the CENTRALLY IMPORTANT AND ONLY CONSTITUTIONALLY MANDATED POST which deals with our finances at a time of national economic crisis.
I know they like to use the crisis as an argument for a quick confirmation. Nonsense!
The crisis is the argument to get the right guy in place. Summers could do it (but we caved to the "obdurate feminists" on this). Volcker could do it, but we wanted a young, attractive, hip team which could play basketball with the President and look good with its shirts off. Obama chose Geithner based on image and personal chemistry. I question the President’s judgment, just like I questioned Bush’s judgment on ‘Brownie’ and the ‘great job’ he was doing.
The IRS, probably more than any other agency, depends on moral credibility.
Our tax system is largely a self-reporting system. Yes, there are audits, but most of us are governed by the honor code. There simply are not enough auditors to catch all the cheaters. Our most powerful tool is moral legitimacy. We say ‘don’t cheat on your taxes, because cheating is unfair to everybody else’. We say ‘don’t cheat, because it’s wrong’.
But now the guy at the top, who is telling people not to cheat, is himself a cheater.
He cheated not just when he was in private life, but even after he was the top guy at the New York Fed. It was until he was moved from one of the most powerful financial posts in the world to the most powerful post, that he finally knuckled under and paid his taxes. What arrogance! The last thing we need is another master of the universe who feels like the rules of the moral code do not apply to him.
The second last thing we need is a bunch of Invertebrate Republicans squishing around the halls of the Senate.
What are other CNBC.com guest commentators saying?
________________________
 |
Data is a real-time snapshot *Data is delayed at least 15 minutes