Reject Geithner

"Only the 'little people' pay taxes!"
(Attributed to) Leona Helmsley

Timothy Geithner, President-Elect Obama's choice for Secretary of the Treasury, has admitted that he failed to pay his Social Security tax of $34,023 for the years 2001-2004. (1) During that period he was employed by the International Monetary Fund (IMF), which is exempt from the requirement that American employers withhold this tax from paychecks and match it with a like payment. American employees of the IMF and similar international agencies are required by law to file form SE (Self-employment) and pay both parts of the tax themselves. Geithner paid the taxes (plus interest) only after an IRS audit in 2006 turned up the tax delinquency.

Documents provided by IMF to all employees detail the tax obligations; Geithner admitted having received these documents. Moreover, a financial expert like him would have known that all American workers must pay Social Security tax.

Timothy Geithner also claimed a tax credit for three years for cost of sending his children to summer camp, even though the credit is clearly limited to costs of pre-school and after-school care, not summer camp.

The obvious implication of this information is that Geithner knowingly evaded his responsibility to pay his fair share of taxes due. While Republicans have sought to reduce everybody's taxes, Geithner sought to only reduce his own.

Of course Timothy Geithner has the knowledge and experience necessary to become Secretary of the Treasury. The trouble is his attitude: that he could get away without paying his taxes. He paid up only after being caught.

Nominees for the highest appointive positions in the government should be held to a higher standard than this. John Tower was rejected for Secretary of Defense in 1989 for offenses no more serious , and several of Bill Clinton's choices for Attorney General were withdrawn for merely employing illegal aliens.

If this nomination is not withdrawn, it should be rejected by the Senate.
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(1) Associated Press, Jan. 6, 2009.

"So Help Me....."

"Before he enter on the execution of his office, he shall take the following oath or affirmation:
"I do solemnly swear (or affirm) that I will faithfully execute the Office of President of the United States, and will, to the best of my Ability, preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States."
Article II, Section 1, Par. (8) of the US Constitution

Readers may be surprised to note that the above provision makes no mention of using a Bible or ending the oath with the phrase "so help me God." There is also no legal requirement that the oath be administered by the Chief Justice of the US Supreme Court. (1)

On December 29, 2008, atheist Michael Newdow filed a suit in the US District Court for the District of Columbia (Newdow vs Roberts) seeking to prevent Chief Justice Roberts from adding the phrase "so help me God" to the oath that he will administer to President-Elect Barack Obama on January 20. The suit, in which Newdow is joined by 24 other co-plaintiffs, also seeks to bar the customary invocations by clergymen from the Inaugural ceremony. The plaintiffs claim that under the First Amendment Establishment Clause, they have the "right to see their government in action without being forced to confront official endorsements of religious dogma."

Newdow has previously sought unsuccessfully to remove the phrase "under God" from the Pledge of Allegiance. Since the death of Madeline Murray O'Hair, who brought the suit that ended official prayers in public schools in 1962, Newdow has become the leader of the atheist/agnostic political movement in this country. Although non-believers comprise about 15% of the American people, far more than Jews and Muslims combined, they receive little or no acknowledgement by public officials. Prominent atheists today include TV comedian Bill Maher, biologist Richard Dawkins and author Christopher Hitchens. Author Ayn Rand was probably the best-known atheist of her time, and the late Wisconsin Assembly Speaker Edward G Jackamonis may have been the one to attain the highest political office. (2)

Although federal courts have restricted religious indoctrination by public schools and barred posting of the Ten Commandments on public buildings, they have permitted merely symbolic references to God by government, such as the motto "In God We Trust" (3) on currency. I expect Newdow vs Roberts to be dismissed on the narrow grounds that plaintiffs have no standing to sue, since they will not sustain significant harm if the targeted phrase is uttered by the Chief Justice. Since it is not part of the official oath of office, it would be a mere "obiter dictum" (extraneous wording); as a former instructor of constitutional law, Barack Obama knows that he need not repeat it to become president. But even if he does utter the phrase, and as a result is more diligent in the execution of his duties than he would be otherwise, this additional diligence will actally benefit the plaintiffs along with all other Americans.

Richard Nixon said in 1960 he did not care what religion a presidential candidate practiced, as long as he had some religion. I contend that large numbers of Americans feel this way today.

Obama, whose parents were both atheists, may be the first president not raised as a Christian. If he had not adopted the Christian faith as a young man, I do not believe he would have been elected a US Senator, let alone President. While campaigning for the Democratic nomination, Obama claimed that bitter people were "clinging to their religion." If he takes the oath of office with the additional words "So help me God," we will know that he does too.
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(1) Vice President Calvin Coolidge was sworn-in as President by his father, a justice of the peace in Vermont, where Coolidge was vacationing when President Warren Harding died.
Lyndon Johnson was sworn-in by US District Judge Sarah T Hughes aboard Air Force One at Dallas Love Field after the death of President Kennedy. Although a Protestant, Johnson placed his left hand on a Catholic missal (prayerbook) during the ceremony.

(2) Jackamonis once said that if student graduated from college believing in God, the college had failed. At the time he was an instructor of political science at the University of Wisconsin-Waukesha.

(3) The third verse of the Star Spangled Banner says, "...and this be out Motto: in God is our Trust."