Diogenes and Obama
Diogenes, Like Obama, Was Looking For an Honest Man!
I know I’m late on the uptake here but I just had to mention that it seemed that President Obama is unwittingly being called to behavior right up there with one of the original cynics, Diogenes. I’m speaking in the context of President Obama’s attempts to get his cabinet populated. Â In case you don’t know, Diogenes was the guy who went around with his lantern lit at midday way back in the day (This was in the time period of Ancient Greece.) Of course his community thought he was crazy. People didn’t walk around with lit lanterns in the day time!
When they finally got around to asking Diogenes what the heck he was doing with the lantern (most likely after having made fun of him for a few years behind his back…but that’s just a guess…)
The story goes that he replied earnestly, “I’m looking for an honest man.”
Centuries later, we’re still repeating that story, not to mention finding honest people few and far between, particularly politicians in the good ole USA. Follow me on the flip for more…. So it was what, three, or even FOUR of Obama’s cabinet pics who turned out to have either not paid or severely underpaid their damn taxes? What’s the deal with that?
Daschle was the one I was paying the most attention to, since he was by all accounts a good guy, and he was a great hope for fixing the morass that passes for a health care “system” in this country. So, Daschle said, apparently, that he “DIDN’T KNOW” that a car and driver provided to him by someone at no charge was taxable. What the heck??? My unemployment benefits will be taxable, (if and when I ever get any…) So it’s a safe frickin’ bet that one’s limo, even if it is ummmm donated by some ahhhhhhhhhh grateful constituent or whatever–gets taxed at market value. Sheesh. I mean, I’m no tax expert, you know? and I would have known that I couldn’t just ride around in a limo at my leisure, and not expect to pay the taxes on the value of it.
And then, what, there were at least two, maybe three other appointees who screwed up their taxes one way or another? I mean, really. And some, if not all of them were Democrats–widely regarded to be the “good guys.”
Is there not an honest man or woman left in DC? One has to wonder, sometimes….
Obama, to his credit, somewhere recently said something along the lines of “One does not go into public service to enrich oneself, one does it to help the public.”
Ah, if only half of them saw it that way, this might be a whole other kettle of fish.
I hate to fan the flames of discontent when they are already higher than I’ve seen them in my lifetime (not that tons of people read Manic Meltdown anyway…..yet…) but it really is ridiculous.
If you want to go into public service, and yet you aren’t prepared to pay the very same taxes you’d throw any of us in jail for not paying…. and if you don’t expect to have your “stuff” gone over with a fine tooth comb, then that is patently insane.
Yes, our leaders are just people, and we don’t have to worship the ground they walk on- nor should we (that’s insane too.) And yes, people make mistakes, even Ms. Sanity here. Still, I have grown more than a little weary of the folks making more in a year than I have in my entire life not living on the up-and-up. How about the IRS audits every single member of the federal congress every year and it becomes part of their job description? Now there’s an idea.
It seems to me that the “powers that be” ought to get it figured out soon that ‘we the people’ are not likely to just accept this kind of behavior indefinitely. Not when millions of us are worried about where our next meal or prescription or mortgage payment is going to come from.
I suggest that while this country is in a meltdown too, and people losing their jobs every day, etc., that Congress do the right thing (at least the US Congress, that is) and vote themselves out of their regular $4500 a year “cost of living” increase for their salaries. If they REALLY want to be impressive (and they don’t, of course…) they could also go ahead and let go of their (free) stellar health insurance paid for by the taxpayer and opt to try and purchase their OWN health insurance on the open market. That would really be a gesture of solidarity with their constituents (and an eye opening experience for them, too, but that’s beside the point.)
The cynical side of Ms. Sanity says (particularly after one Dick Cheney’s appalling “So?” statement) that our congressional representatives outside of election time don’t really care what we think or feel.
That is a situation that cannot stand, or be allowed to stand, forever. Those people work for US. NOT big corporations, not lobbyists, they work for you and me. Eventually I think they will be reminded of that in no uncertain terms, one way or another.
February 12, 2009
Tags: Congress, corruption, insanity, President Obama, taxes Posted in: Insane
One Response
They’re all a bunch of crooks. They don’t care about me, or you.
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