Sins of a Treasury Secretary

Venial versus mortal sins in a Treasury Secretary
01/22/09 - PowerLineBlog by Paul Mirengoff and John Hinderaker

The Senate is holding confirmation hearings to make Timothy Geithner Secretary of the Treasury, to run the IRS and manage the spending of $800 billion dollars and more in "stimulus".

John Hinderaker:

[edited] Geithner failed to pay his self-employment taxes for four years. I find it remarkable that the Senate is willing to overlook that fact, even though:

• The IMF, his employer, told him that he needed to pay these taxes.
• The IMF gave him additional compensation specifically earmarked for paying those taxes.
• He signed a form stating that he would use this compensation to pay those taxes.
• He paid those taxes for 2003 and 2004 after he was audited by the IRS.
• He still did not pay those taxes for 2001 and 2002 because the statute of limitations had run out for those years, so he couldn't be prosecuted.
• He paid the tax for 2001 and 2002 when Obama's transition team discovered the facts.

A Republican with the same tax-scofflaw record would not have the chance of a snowball in Hell of being confirmed.

Paul Mirengoff:

[edited] The conventional wisdom that exalts Geithner says that former Secretary of the Treasury Lawrence Summers could run Treasury at least as well as Geithner.

Unfortunately, Summers committed an offense far graver than non-payment of taxes. He expressed politically incorrect views about why there are more men than women in high-end science and engineering positions.