The following quotes come from the Associated Press...
Timothy Geithner was confirmed as treasury secretary despite belatedly paying $34,000 in income taxes
Tom Daschle is still waiting to see if his late payment of more than $128,000 in income taxes will harm his nomination to be health and human services secretary. He officially withdrew his nomination on Tuesday.
Obama's first choice for commerce secretary, New Mexico Gov. Bill Richardson, took his name out of consideration when his confirmation appeared headed toward complications because of a grand jury investigation over how state contracts were issued to political donors.
Nancy Killefer, who failed for a year and a half to pay employment taxes on household help, withdrew her candidacy to be the first chief performance officer for the federal government on Tuesday.
Are these revelations an alarming trend concerning the character of the people being chosen for the new administration or an unfortunate set of circumstances that should not reflect negatively on President Obama? (DUE 2/10)
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We should get new people to do this job, because if we have people that are behind in taxes they can get further in and fail. We need people that can prove they can lead this country.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Domenic. I believe that if a person cannot deal with personal issues in an appropraite manner then he or she should not be running our country. If they are irresponsible with their own finances and personal decisions, how are they going to lead our country out the crisis that we are in now?
ReplyDeleteThe people being considered for these positions have had a shady past; therefore, they should not be able to be assigned to any political offices. We can not have people who already cheat the system in our government if we want to fix our economical struggle. These bad candidates should not be in our government
ReplyDeleteI think that this is not Obama's fault by any means. All people are struggling right now due to the current state of our economy. Also, I do not think that this is an alarming trend in Obama's choices but an alarming trend amongst the American people. We are sinking further and further into debt. However, I do think that different choices should be made for the leaders of our government. We need people in office who set good examples of economic responsibility for the American people.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Claire. I feel that in order to take care of and run the country, these people need to first take care of themselves. You cnannot fully focus on the job t hand until you have first focused on bettering yourself.
ReplyDeleteThese people’s struggles to pay their taxes show that not just the everyday people are struggling, everyone is. I don’t think it reflects badly on Obama, because he just chose good people for the job, but these people have unpaid taxes. After finding out about these tax problems, I think Obama should chose new people for the jobs.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Vince, since they have found out about these peoples tax problems, then they should chose new people for these positions. I think his sentence about cheating the system is true, and they should be replaced.
ReplyDeleteI believe that it was just a unfortunate set of circumstances that the people President Obama picked to be in his ministration have had trouble with the law. I don't believe that he should get the blame, because he did not know when he selected them that they had thoes types of issues.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Britney, if a person can't seem to follow the laws and not have control of their own life then they have no reason to be in a position of power. You want somebody that follows the rules and one that you can count on to not to anything illeagal.
ReplyDeleteI think it is an unfortunate set of circumstances and that we should not blame Obama for it. He didnt know all of their personal issues when he elected them.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Claire and Domenic. We need people that can control their own lives and personal issues and prove that they can handle any difficulties that come up. If they can't handle their own personal issues like paying their taxes, then how are they supposed to help us with our country.
ReplyDeleteI think President Obama's administration should have researched. It would have saved them some embarrassment. I do think it is an unfortunant set of circumstances. Next time he should just be more careful.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Briana. This isn't Obama's fault but he should have handled it better. They should take care of themself first off if they think they could take care of the whole country.
ReplyDeleteI think that this has been an unfortunate set of events. He would not purposely pick these types of people. He picked people in high positions because he thought that he would not need to check things like this. He though they would be outstanding citizens. However that was not the case and should not be judged on this.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Katie. He is the president and has a lot of tasks to take care of. He checks out the people to make sure they can do the job they have to do to ask him to dive into every persons file and know everything about them is unreasonable for a president to do.
ReplyDeleteI believe we should find new people to do this job. But at the same time i do not think that we should blame this on the president. It's like picking a team when you are a kid. All of the good people are gone, so you are stuck with picking the bad ones. It's just unfortunate that all of this has been happening.
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ReplyDeleteI agree with Buck Money. It's an unfortuante thing that is happening. Why would he he pick bad people? It's not his fault. These people in high positions shouldnt be there if they are having problems and avoiding things.
ReplyDeletei agree with bstasik29 yes we should find new people because they are setting an example to this country. If they can't keep up with taxes and fines then what should we do?
ReplyDeleteI am glad that the media is calling Obama on his nominations. We must be cautious after the Bush administration's Scooter Libby escapade. The Obama administration has done a poor job of filtering out nominees and this has been reflected in their drop in approval ratings since the election.
ReplyDeleteI agree with bstasik29. I think that those people should not be in office, but that is it not necessarily Obama's fault. He may not have had any idea of their tax problems and had just chosen them for their political experience.
ReplyDeleteIts not Obamas fault for picking people with mistakes in their payments. Not everyone is able to pay all of their bills on time. Everyone makes mistakes sometime. Obama must have had reasoning for picking the people he did.
ReplyDeleteIn reponse to bstasik29 and Jessica, Obama picked these people for a reason. He doesnt just go and choose someone without looking at thier background. He might have done this because these people are in the same situation as our country is in. They may be able to understand what our country is going through. We shouldnt blame Obama for this
ReplyDeleteI think it is obama's fault that these canidates were chosen. There should have been a more thorough background search to eliminate the possibility. These candiates should no longer be allowed to run because it makes the government untrustorthy.
ReplyDeleteIn responce to Kelsey Gritt, I believe there are more people capable of fulfilling their positions. There are plenty of educated people with clean background that can do as well as these people. If these people cant handle the taxes in the current economy, there is little hope for the rest of us.
ReplyDeleteI think these are just unfortunate circumstances that should not reflect negatively on President Obama. His cabinet members ability to go their job is in no way affected by their ability to pay their taxes on time. Of course, they should pay them on time just like everyone else, but these occurences should not stop them from taking their positions in the Cabinet.
ReplyDeleteI disagree with Kelsey. When Obama must name a few thousands positions in a limited amount of time, he does not have the necessary time to perform a background check that checks everything including his appointees tax records. I would rather have a person with a slightly tarnished tax record than an incompetent replacement in a government position with authority.
ReplyDeleteI believe president Obama should do further investigating upon nominating them. This is a negative trend, to me reflecting on Obama. He needs to start out by making a positive work environment.
ReplyDeleteI think that these are an unfortunate set of circumstances that should not reflect negatively on President Obama simply because it shows that the recession we are in is effecting everybody. People everywhere are struggling, not just the lower people on the totem pole and I think the fact that all this people must with-draw proves it. In response to Tim, I disagree because I don't believe it's the Obama Administration's fault for this series of events. Going into the election, I don't believe they had any idea the course these events were going to take.
ReplyDeleteI dont think Obama should be blamed for another mans personal problems. Obama picked richardson because of his expertise out weighed his negativity. As soon as Richardsons taxes went public he payed them right away.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Austin ,no one in such a high position should be breaking the law. He should be removed from his position because it represents a bad example. I'm sure Obama is embarrassed because of his bad choice of govenor, but it shouldnt be held against him.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Dom. People that have problems paying taxes shouldn't be in charge of running our country. These people need to get their life under controle before they try to make desions that will controle other peoples lives.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Buck Money that it's unfortunate, however this is primarily the fault of his staff (who he hired to do the background checks) for not finding this earlier. When the media is coming to these realizations before your transition team, that's when you know you need to start cleaning house a little bit. The fault here lies not with Obama, but with the team he appointed not doing their job well enough.
ReplyDeleteI believe that this is unfortunate but also Obama should be help somewhat responsible because it is his job to have faith in the people that he appoints to that position. I believe that Obama should do his homework on these people before he gives them a job of this magnitude.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Luke in stating that these people should not be in charge of our country. If they have trouble managing something as simple as taxes, how can they possibly be prepared enough to take on the responsibilities of a country with the state that it is in right now.
ReplyDeleteI think that these are an alarming trend concerning the character of the people being chosen. It would be different if it was only one or maybe two people it would be different. But since that it is four people and all had some sort of problem that caused them to drop their name for the position I think that it could reflect negatively on President Obama.
ReplyDeleteGoing back to what Elias said that as soon as Richardson taxes went public he payed them why would he not have payed them before. So why would Obama chose this man if he had unpaided taxes. If he could have paid them why did it take him that long. He had to wait until the public found out about it.
ReplyDeleteI think this is just an unfortunate set of circumstances that should not reflect negatively on President Obama. President Obama may be the kind of person who will give you a second chance. He may have picked those people because he feels that they need a boost to get their feet back under themselves.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kirkhoff because Obama should do more investigating on the people he appoints. The people he surrounds himself with are not only going to affect him personally but also his decisions.
ReplyDeleteI believe these are an unfortunate set of events that should have no negativity thrown upon Obama. If you are struggling with your own taxes then why even make yourself available for this position? How do you expect to lead a economically struggling nation, when you yourself have years of unpaid taxes is my question.
ReplyDeleteI agree with Kocher's response. Yes, Obama may be the type to believe in giving second chances in all, but I think you should focus on your own problems before you take on an even heavier load.
ReplyDeleteif the country wants to be run smoothly,then there must people in office that are not corrupt ready to take money away from the country. I think that for president obama this was an uncotrolable circumstance, and he needs toget rid of thosein office that are corrupt and care more fo rhtemsleves than the country.
ReplyDeletei agree with hallie at the fact that Obama should not be blamed for what has happened. he can not control what people are going to do at all times. If he thought that he was a good honest person, that mistake is mad emany times throughout life.Your next store can be really nice, but in sokme cases turns out to be a murderer. So its not fair to blame obama.
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