Sunday, March 22, 2009

Leadership or Playing to the Mob?

What a crazy week this has been.

Concerning the House’s passage of a 90% tax on the bonuses of a limited number of people in the Financial Industry, this is a time for reasoned leadership, not playing to “the mob.” Students of Roman history need to be speaking up. Does this not remind you of the final days of the Roman republic when real public servants were so hard to find and the Roman elected officials played to the mob in the forum?

The way Edward Liddy was treated on Capitol Hill is shameful. This is a man called in to lead AIG by the government. He is taking a $1 a year salary. He has no stock options. He is a public servant in every sense of the word. I encourage you to read Mr. Liddy’s op-ed piece in the Washington Post for Wed. March 18. You can find it online by clicking on http://tinyurl.com/cdb8th

Tax policy should never be used as a tool for punishment. As the President pointed out tonight on 60 Minutes, this tax bill would affect at most 10,000 people. Tax bills should reflect a reasoned approach to tax policy that focuses primarily on raising revenue for government operations in the fairest way possible. The internal revenue code should not be a system of rewards and punishments.

I have heard that we get the leaders we deserve. Maybe this is true in a democracy. If so, it is time that we modeled the behavior that we seek from our leaders. Maybe it will begin to resonate.

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