This Is Change?

This is change?
Kelly Boggs
Posted on Jan 23, 2009

ALEXANDRIA, La. (BP)--One of President Obama's campaign mantras was "change we can believe in." The new administration has been in office less than a week and we are indeed seeing change, but I'm really having trouble believing it.

Timothy Geithner, the president's choice for secretary of the Treasury, was found to have not paid self-employment taxes from 2001 to 2004. Reports indicate the amount of the taxes to be more than $34,000.

Geithner sought to deal with the tax issue by paying the rest of the money owed just days before he was announced as Obama's choice to head the Treasury Department. Reports indicated that he paid a portion of the taxes in 2006 when the Internal Revenue Department sent him a bill.

Democrats on the Senate Finance Committee, the committee charged with confirming Obama's appointment, shrugged off Geithner's problems as hiccups and honest mistakes.

When Republicans on the Finance Committee pressed the tax issue, Geithner responded by saying:

"These were careless mistakes, avoidable mistakes, but they were unintentional. I should have been more careful. I take full responsibility for them. I have gone back and corrected the errors; I have paid what I owed. I want to apologize to the committee for putting them in the position to have to spend so much time on these issues."

Geithner's explanation was good enough for a majority of the senators. The Finance Committee confirmed his appointment to President Obama's cabinet by a vote of 18 to 5.

I have trouble believing that the new president would nominate someone with Geithner's tax problems for the post of secretary of the Treasury, which oversees the IRS. Reports indicate that President Obama's transition team were aware of the unpaid taxes, hence the reason Geithner paid them just before his nomination was announced.