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Michelle Malkin

Tim Geithner is a joke in China, too

Tim Geithner is a joke in China, too By Michelle Malkin %95 June 1, 2009 03:07 PM

Tax cheat Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner is a laughingstock in Congress. A permanent punchline on late-night TV. And he's a joke in China, too:

U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner on Monday reassured the Chinese government that its huge holdings of dollar assets are safe and reaffirmed his faith in a strong U.S. currency.

A major goal of Geithner's maiden visit to China as Treasury chief is to allay concerns that Washington's bulging budget deficit and ultra-loose monetary policy will fan inflation, undermining both the dollar and U.S. bonds.

China is the biggest foreign owner of U.S. Treasury bonds. U.S. data shows that it held $768 billion in Treasuries as of March, but some analysts believe China's total U.S. dollar-denominated investments could be twice as high.

"Chinese assets are very safe," Geithner said in response to a question after a speech at Peking University, where he studied Chinese as a student in the 1980s.

His answer drew loud laughter from his student audience, reflecting skepticism in China about the wisdom of a developing country accumulating a vast stockpile of foreign reserves instead of spending the money to raise living standards at home.

Right Side News

Geithner's AIG Strategy Could be Catastrophic

We are in unchartered waters, and just yesterday I was talking to a friend in California who lives on a farm, grows crops, has plenty of wildlife around him. That is definitely a more secure setting than my own, as I compile a list of food items for long term storage. We are preparing for a catastrophic economic meltdown should that occur. We hope it doesn't, and pray for the best. So when I went to City Journal this morning (I go there often), and see this article, I continue making my preparations.

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There's My Two Cents

Tax Cheat Geithner -- The Only One Capable -- Lays An Egg

When the Senate approved Tim Tax Cheat Geithner as Treasury Secretary, they assured us it was because he was the only possible person who could save us all from financial ruin, even though he hadn't paid his own taxes. Well, the Democrat wonder boy has not had an auspicious beginning at his new post. Within days he provoked the Chinese, and now his glorious shining moment of revealing the next bailout program turned out to be a complete dud.

He gave a preview of his plan to members of Congress Monday night, and they laughed at him. No kidding, they actually laughed at him:

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Where's the Change

Geithner and other White House tax cheats lead to civil disobedience?

... Surely I am not alone in wondering why I am a big enough sap to pay tens of thousands of dollars in Federal taxes each and every year, while our Washington bureaucrats seem to get away consequence free with a pattern of cheating and fraud. And please, don't tell me Tom Daschle didn't get away with it. Sure, he lost his position for a cabinet position, but don't you think he will be laughing all the way back to his millions-a-year "consulting" gig? Will he be prosecuted for his fraud like I would be? Did he pay any penalties? No, and no. ...

Moonbattery

Tax Cheat Geithner Hires Lobbyist as Chief of Staff

Now that US Treasury Secretary has become one of the most powerful positions in the world, it would be nice to have someone with integrity in the position. Instead we have tax cheat Timothy Geithner, who after promising to keep lobbyists' snouts out of the $700 billion TARP trough, promptly hired Goldman Sachs lobbyist Mark Patterson to serve as his Chief of Staff.

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The Lonely Conservative

Incompetent Tax Cheat Confirmed as Treasury Secretary

So what if he forgot to pay his taxes four years in a row! So what if he received reimbursement for those unpaid taxes! He's too big to fail. This is just another example of Democrats being above the law

He's Not My President

Final vote for Timothy Geithner'sconfirmation was 60 to 34

Here is a list of how each Senator voted as provided by the U.S. Senate's website:

U.S. Senate Roll Call Votes 111th Congress - 1st Session as compiled through Senate LIS by the Senate Bill Clerk under the direction of the Secretary of the Senate

Wayne

GOP disappoints with Timothy Geithner

Here we have a clear case of somebody ignoring the tax laws of our country and his reward is to become the boss of the IRS. Not only did he fail to pay his self employment tax but he was given the money to pay it under his contract. [1] He clearly knew about his problems in 2006 when he was audited for the years 2003-2004; [2] However he was had been doing the same thing in 2001 and 2002, which the IRS did not audit [2]. He did not correct his until Nov. 21, 2008.

Michelle Malkin

Giving in to Geithner: The B.O. Republicans bow down

... For weeks, we've watched capitulationsist GOP Senators rationalize away Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner's tax, legal, and bailout failout troubles. Sen. Orrin Hatch insists he's "very competent." Sen. Lindsay Graham lectured us not to be "small" about it. Five B.O. Republicans on the Senate Finance Committee supported Geithner, five opposed him.

The final vote is set tonight. And the outcome is preordained (or, as Spike Lee puts it, pre-deortained): Geithner will sail through with token opposition. ...

Michelle Malkin

Top 10 bad omens of the Geithner nomination

It looks increasingly like the GOP is going to ignore the bad signs and capitulate on Obama's Treasury Secretary nominee.

Tom Blumer lists the top 10 disturbing aspects of the Geithner nomination.

Do not say, 6 months or a year from now, that you were not warned, GOP

Michelle Malkin

Geithner's tax troubles are not a "triviality"

You are not going to believe who described Obama Treasury Secretary nominee Tim Geithner's serial tax-dodging as a "triviality."

Charles Krauthammer.

He also calls those who believe Geithner should be denied the nomination "unserious."

Perhaps that Beltway dinner with The One is paying dividends already?

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Right Side News

Confirmation Wonderland: The Developing Saga of Timothy Geithner

Poor Bill Richardson. He isn't Tim Geithner. ...

... On the way to confirmation, Richardson forgot to tell the Obama transition folks that his administration is being investigated for pay-to-play politics of the illegal kind, with a federal grand jury looking into no-bid contracts awarded to a significant campaign contributor. Richardson withdrew his nomination. Editorials bemoaning the loss were scarce.

Tim Geithner, who has been nominated by Obama to save the country, perhaps even the world, from financial ruin as Secretary of the Treasury, is a different story.

Geithner is a lifelong numbers nerd who is currently President of the New York Federal Reserve. As such, he has been one of the principal figures in the billions of dollars of Wall Street bailouts, mostly secret, that have succeeded in embarrassing the wives of financial institution executives into now shopping in secret, and not much else.

As Treasury Secretary-designate, Mr. Geithner has been one of the principal figures in arguing for more bailout money and a new "economic stimulus" package, both to give and spend ever so many more hundreds of billions of taxpayer money that the treasury does not have and will not soon get.

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Doug Ross

Treasury nominee Geithner held to a lower standard than even an entry-level IRS employee

Barack Obama's nominee for Treasury Secretary, Timothy Geithner, failed to pay more than $34,000 in taxes during his tenure at the International Monetary Fund (IMF). If he is confirmed as Treasury Secretary, Geithner would oversee the Internal Revenue Service.

Problem is that the nominee failed to pay his taxes despite being advised in writing by the IMF of his liability.

The 1998 IRS Restructuring and Reform Act lists "10 types of actions for which IRS employees of the agency can be fired."

Michelle Malkin

Geithner's tax reimbursements for taxes he didn't pay

The tax allowance has turned out to be a key part of the Geithner situation. This is how it worked. IMF employees were expected to pay their taxes out of their own money. But the IMF then gave them an extra allowance, known as a "gross-up," to cover those tax payments. ...

At the end of the tax allowance form were the words, "I hereby certify that all the information contained herein is true to the best of my knowledge and belief and that I will pay the taxes for which I have received tax allowance payments from the Fund." Geithner signed the form. He accepted the allowance payment. He didn't pay the tax. For several years in a row.

Accurancy in Media

The Big Money Behind Geithner

A guy who can't figure out his own taxes is supposed to fix the economy? This is the absurd rationale being offered by media figures such as Andrea Mitchell of NBC News for confirming Timothy Geithner as Obama's Treasury Secretary after it was disclosed that he was a serial tax evader. He did his own taxes for a couple years and got into trouble, Mitchell chuckled. And everybody can relate to that, right? Mitchell is the one who deserves to be laughed at. This guy is supposed to be so smart we can entrust him with managing the entire U.S. economy? She must be kidding. Does she seriously expect us to believe that?

Rhymes With Right

Geithner - ... choose not to correct since you didn't get caught ...

Now I can accept that a paperwork snafu led to immigration issues for a domestic employee. And I can accept that even the brightest guy can make a tax mistake -- those IRS rules are confusing, and the one he broke more than most. But when you get pinged for a violation on one return that you know you made in other years but choose not to correct since you didn't get caught, doesn't that raise a serious character issue that needs to be considered? ...

Accurancy in Media

Why Are the Media Protecting Geithner?

The Obama Transition Project says that Timothy Geithner, its Chinese-speaking Treasury Secretary nominee, made "honest mistakes" on his tax returns. This line comes from the same group that is telling us that a nearly $1 trillion "stimulus" bill taking us further into debt can be called the "American Recovery and Reinvestment Act." Polling and focus groups came up with that brilliant deception.

Our media have quickly adopted the new party line. The NBC Nightly News dutifully reported Geithner's "honest mistakes" in the graphic it showed on Tuesday night in a story about the serious tax problems. Officially, the Obama team calls them "tax concerns." But it's nothing we are supposed to be concerned about, even though he is going to be in charge of the federal department with jurisdiction over the IRS.

...

Curmudgeon's Corner

Dems circle the wagons in attempt to forstall debate

... We do this - we circle the wagons and hold a strategy meeting. We decide our story will be "sure he cheated the IRS, but Zero really, REALLY wants him to run Treasury, and it's not like it's a FELONY or anything! It's just a MINOR ERROR, and we've ALL cheated at some time or other, right? So, what's the big deal?" ...

Michelle Malkin

Obama's Treasury Secretary: Tax rules for thee, but not for me; Update: Link to Senate Finance Cmte docs added

And I'm sure the Obama IRS would be as charitable with you or me as Team Obama is being with Timothy Geithner if we used the same explanation for failing to pay self-employment taxes:

Heavy-Handed Politics

Geithner Plan Surfaces

The long wait for the Obama administration to act on the banking crisis ended Monday when Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner's plan to solve the banking crisis surfaced. Geithner's plan is a highly complex version of what then-Treasury Secretary Hank Paulson proposed (and then abandoned) last fall. And it comes just a week after the Federal Reserve acted in apparent frustration at the Obama administration's inaction.

Geithner's plan creates a.........

Michelle Malkin

Timothy Geithner and the falling US dollar

[...]

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner sent the dollar tumbling with comments about China's ideas for overhauling the global monetary system, only to drive it back up by affirming that it should remain the world's reserve currency.

Geithner was initially asked at a Council on Foreign Relations event in New York about proposals from People's Bank of China Governor Zhou Xiaochuan for a new international reserve currency. He said "as I understand his proposal, it's a proposal designed to increase the use of the IMF's special drawing rights. And we're actually quite open to that."

The dollar slid as much as 1.3 percent against the euro within 10 minutes of news accounts of Geithner's remarks. The U.S. currency was down 0.6 percent at $1.3553 as of 12:31 p.m. in New York.

Roger Altman, who worked with Geithner as deputy Treasury secretary in the Clinton administration, later asked Geithner whether he wanted to "clarify" his remarks.

"I'd like to ask one final question, in effect on behalf of the market," said Altman, founder of Evercore Partners Inc. "Let me ask the question this way. Do you see any change over the foreseeable future in the basic role of the dollar as the world's key reserve currency?"

'Strong' Dollar

Geithner responded by saying that "I think the dollar remains the world's dominant reserve currency." In an interview with CNBC broadcast after the event, the Treasury chief said that a "strong dollar" is in "America's interest."

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Bruce Collins

Absolutely Amazing: Just Like Obama, Tim Geithner's First Job Was At Kissinger Associates...

Somehow that slipped past me. Isn't it amazing, the campaign of change is the 'same old, same old.' The Obama administration is making the Bush administration look fiscally sound with its' 'corporate welfare' to the banking institutions.

Hey, Obama, good pick with Timmy Geithner! Wasn't he the President of the Fed Reserve Bank of New York when Bear Stearns and Lehman Brothers failed???

WND

Geithner previously aware of AIG bonuses

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and Congress members contend they learned about the controversial bonuses for executives of bailed-out insurance giant AIG only late last week, but C-SPAN video shows a lawmaker mentioning the payouts as he questioned Geithner during a House committee hearing March 3.

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Moon Battery

As Economy Tanks, Geithner Growls About Global Warming

With the stock market collapsing and a depression looming, our tax cheat Treasury Secretary is grappling with weighty concerns. Foremost among them: the apocryphal global warming crisis.

... "U.S. oil and natural gas producing companies should not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks because their businesses contribute to global warming, U.S. Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told Congress on Wednesday." ...

In a socialist kleptocracy like ours, "not receive federal subsidies in the form of tax breaks" is liberalese for getting raped and pillaged by Big Government.

... "It was one of the sharpest attacks yet on the oil and gas industry by a top Obama administration official, reinforcing the White House stance that new U.S. energy policy will focus on promoting renewable energy sources like wind and solar power and rely less on traditional fossil fuels like oil as America tackles climate change." ...

Windmills and pixie dust will be just the trick to pull us out of a deep recession.

... "The Obama administration's budget would levy an excise tax on oil and natural gas produced in the Gulf of Mexico, raising $5.3 billion in revenue from 2011 to 2019." ...

This should lay to rest any hopes that the Cloward-Piven Marxists running the government will allow the economy to recover.