Is this the “Change” you signed up for?

The past few days have been quite the trying times for the Obama Administration. It all started last week with his recommendation for the Treasury spot, Geithner, was bogged down by tax issues before ultimately being approved. Then, Daschle started to bob and weave about his own tax problems, revealing that he had failed to pay over $100,000 in taxes. The final whammy came when both Daschle and Nancy Killefer had to withdraw their nominations to administration spots because of tax issues.

Now is Obama to blame for their sins? No, he obviously did not know about these issues, and probably would not have nominated them in the first place if he had. The question, though, is why did he continue to defend them? Why did he continue to stand by them? For an administration that railed about “honesty”, “Integrity”, and a new style of politics for the last year and a half, didn’t these issues immediately undercut the entire administrations efforts.  Doesn’t this send the message that, “Well, ok, you don’t HAVE to follow the letter of the law as long as you have the right background to make a solid contribution to my efforts.”

This is not to say that no one makes mistakes, and I’m not even alleging that these might not have been “honest” tax mistakes. Lord knows that the Tax Code is immensely confusing. But it’s not as if these are problems or mistakes committed years ago by these nominees. These are immediate. They are current mistakes. If they though there might have even been a slight question or problem with their taxes, why didn’t they have someone double or triple check it?

On the flip side of all this, President Obama has now unveiled his plan for compensatory caps. $500,000 is the maximum that an executive will be allowed to make if their company has received a bailout from the government. The capitalist inside me cringes – but you know what, if your company “has” to have government bailout money, then it’s probably justified. I think, though, it will result in companies who didn’t need the money to survive (but probably would have taken it to possibly loosen their lending practices) from taking money like this in the future.  If companies like this stop taking money, lending practices will take that much longer to resume to normal. So . . . is this the best way to enact market corrections?

• We’re are only about a week away from pitchers and catchers reporting to Spring training. Baseball, return to my life! I need you! College basketball, NBA, and NHL aren’t getting the job done.
• Next week is College Night. Nothing is like it, and I’m completely ready for it.
• Just about three weeks to go till Holly turns in her rank list. ZOINKS!
• In the last few weeks, I’ve seen previews for both “Wolverine” and “G.I. Joe”. This summer will be scrumtrulescent at the theatres.

One love . . . Holla.