Geithner's tax cheating is the least of my worries.
Jim Bunning was heroic in yesterday's hearings. Sadly, I don't think anybody was paying attention. ...
"In addition to questions about Geithner's tax missteps, Bunning and other Republican senators grilled the nominee about his involvement with the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, his connection with the sale of Bear Stearns and the bailout of AIG â institutions Bunning faults for the current economic meltdown. Bunning has been a critic of bailouts to the financial sector and American automakers.
"Even before the disclosure of the nominee's tax problems, I had serious reservations about this nomination," Bunning said in a statement. "Mr. Geithner has been involved in just about every flawed bailout action of the previous administration.
"He was the front-line regulator in New York when all the innovations that recently have brought our markets to their knees became widespread," Bunning's statement continued. "He went along with the flawed monetary policy decisions of (former and current Fed chairmen) Alan Greenspan and Ben Bernanke. He failed to cite China for manipulating its currency, and he stretched the law beyond recognition to bail out Bear Stearns."
Those actions, Bunning said, raise questions about the nominee's judgment, and Geithner's failure to pay taxes despite specific guidance from the IMF "reflects a degree of negligence toward the law he will be charged with enforcing."
