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“President Obama won reelection in part by beating up on his opponent for receiving big corporate payouts in exchange for dubious work and for socking away money in tax havens such as the Cayman Islands.
So it’s a bit, well, rich that Obama chose as his new Treasury secretary a man who received a big corporate payout for dubious work and who socked away money in the Cayman Islands.
This awkward fact pattern forced a role reversal Wednesday on Capitol Hill, as Obama’s nominee, Jack Lew, came before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing. Republicans expressed outrage about his compensation and his investment — in other words, giving him the Mitt Romney treatment. And Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), an outspoken foe of offshore tax havens, helped Lew defend himself.
In Washington, where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.
Lew, who was White House chief of staff while Obama’s campaign was pummeling Romney over his pay and taxes, received a $945,000 bonus in January 2009 after a brief tenure at Citigroup — just as the bank announced huge losses and took a taxpayer bailout. Lew also invested $56,000 in a Citigroup venture-capital fund registered in the Cayman Islands — registered in the very building, in fact, that Obama labeled “the largest tax scam in the world.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-senators-turn-the-tables-on-caymans-investor-jack-lew/2013/02/13/d01cac80-7631-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html?hpid=z2
So it’s a bit, well, rich that Obama chose as his new Treasury secretary a man who received a big corporate payout for dubious work and who socked away money in the Cayman Islands.
This awkward fact pattern forced a role reversal Wednesday on Capitol Hill, as Obama’s nominee, Jack Lew, came before the Senate Finance Committee for his confirmation hearing. Republicans expressed outrage about his compensation and his investment — in other words, giving him the Mitt Romney treatment. And Chairman Max Baucus (D-Mont.), an outspoken foe of offshore tax havens, helped Lew defend himself.
In Washington, where you stand on an issue depends on where you sit.
Lew, who was White House chief of staff while Obama’s campaign was pummeling Romney over his pay and taxes, received a $945,000 bonus in January 2009 after a brief tenure at Citigroup — just as the bank announced huge losses and took a taxpayer bailout. Lew also invested $56,000 in a Citigroup venture-capital fund registered in the Cayman Islands — registered in the very building, in fact, that Obama labeled “the largest tax scam in the world.”
http://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/dana-milbank-senators-turn-the-tables-on-caymans-investor-jack-lew/2013/02/13/d01cac80-7631-11e2-95e4-6148e45d7adb_story.html?hpid=z2
