NEWS JUNKIE POST
Aug 26, 2009 at 12:09 amObama’s Connections Casting Bad Light On The White House
Both the left and right wing media have been critical of President Barack Obama’s golf mate on Tuesday at Martha’s Vineyard and rightfully so. Obama’s golf buddy was Robert Wolf, the chairman of UBS Investment Bank in the Americas — the bank that has been under federal investigation since earlier this year for facilitating tax evasion for wealthy Americans. But, there is even more to this story than meets the eye.
Wolf is not only affiliated with UBS, but he has had a prominent role in the President’s economic recovery plan. Back in March, Wolf joined 16 others as members of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board — a group of Americans that meets with Obama’s people regularly to discuss the economic crisis and offer solutions. There are speculations that Wolf’s appointment had something to do with the $500,000 he raised for Obama’s campaign. But, the story doesn’t end there.
Just on Monday, the whistle-blower for the UBS tax evasion scandal, banker Bradley Birkenfeld was sentenced to 40 months in prison for his role in the bank’s criminal activity, despite the fact that Birkenfeld was the man who came forward to expose the tax evasion scheme.
According to the Daily Business Review:
Birkenfeld provided details on how UBS bankers infiltrated the United States on behalf of Americans looking to hide assets. Switzerland’s largest bank used a vast array of foreign foundations, corporations and shell companies in the Caribbean, Latin America and elsewhere to hide the money.
In short, Birkenfeld is a hero and thanks to him more probes into UBS’s practices will be investigated and more tax evaders will be brought to justice. Yet, the man is sentenced by U.S. District Court Judge William Zloch without considering whistleblower protection for Birkenfeld. This may not be surprising if you consider that Judge Zloch, a conservative, was appointed by President Ronald Reagan to the bench back in 1985.
Who else was appointed by Reagan in 1985? Conservative Harvard Professor Martin Feldstein who is also a member of Obama’s Economic Recovery Advisory Board (just to be clear this doesn’t mean Zloch and Feldstein know each other). Feldstein’s field of expertise is among other things — tax law. The right-wing scholar has written and edited publications that deal with tax evasion and tax shelters issues. And, just as a side note, Feldstein is the author of “Privatizing Social Security: The $10 Trillion Opportunity,” which received rave reviews from the Cato Institute.
Feldstein hasn’t been very appreciative to the White House for his appointment to the Economic Recovery Advisory Board though, in fact, Feldstein doesn’t like Obama very much. When he is not talking economic recovery, Feldstein is talking healthcare and he is one of the key figures pushing around the argument that Obama’s health care reform will lead to “rationing.” Just take a look at his August 18 op-ed on the Wall Street Journal titled, “ObamaCare Is All About Rationing.”
Here is Feldstein’s opening paragraph in that op-ed:
Although administration officials are eager to deny it, rationing health care is central to President Barack Obama’s health plan. The Obama strategy is to reduce health costs by rationing the services that we and future generations of patients will receive.
And, yes, this is the same Martin Feldstein that sits on Obama’s economic advisory board.
In a nutshell, Obama hasn’t been surrounding himself with saints. To be fair to the right-wingers, many of the members of his Economic Recovery Advisory Board are plagued by some sort of dark secret or scandal.
Back in March 5, the Washington Times did an “exclusive” on other fishy board members including, Richard L. Trumka, secretary-treasurer of the AFL-CIO, (money laundering complaints), Penny Pritzker, chairwoman of Classic Residence by Hyatt (her Chicago bank issued subprime loans). The paper also made claims that at least 11 of the then 16 member panel had contributed to the Obama campaign.
Perhaps Obama’s advisers should do a much better job vetting who should sit in some of his boards or at least not have him play golf with characters who work for banks that offer safe havens in Switzerland for wealthy tax evaders.
