I was not aware that the Palin family was elected to office.
In light of your statement, would it be ok for an unmarried male governor to bring 6 friends/girlfriends along? How in the world is an entourage necessary?
The quote button. Use it.
They’re both white people. Why don’t you just say that my argument is that it’s ok for white people to charge the taxpayers for family travel?
The extrapolation you’re making is logically unfounded and does not follow from my argument.
If someone did this at any major corporation in the US, then they would certainly be in line to be fired without recourse. In fact, this is a perferred termination reason used by many corporations and managers. (Eg, employee has a clear reason for dismissal and even if there are allegations like sexual harrassment it becomes 100x harder to prove that was the firing reason.) I think that elected government officials should be held to an even greater level of transparency than is used for corporations.
Sarah Pallin could have whacked commissioner Walt Monegan for falsifying expense reports and at least I would have considered any political implications to be just sour grapes.
I’ve taken family members on business trips and paid all incremental costs. I’m also pretty careful to make sure that my managers know about it in advance to avoid even the *perception *of impropriety. You know I wouldn’t even have a problem with a child sharing the room as long as there isn’t an increased room cost. However, food, incidentals, airfare is something that should be paid for by the individual.
And yes, selling the government jet does not justify retroactively using this as a reason for why kids should travel on the taxpayers dime. I would look at this completely differently if at the time of selling the jet SP would have made a transparent and above the board deal that the cost savings on the jet would allow her fmaily some taxpayer expense travel under xx conditions.
I don’t know what kinds of company you work for, but at my company, I know nothing about the CEO’s family, and he knows nothing about mine. I just went to check our internal website for job descriptions and even in upper management there is nothing about having to put your family on display. What companies do you know of, that make it a prerequisite that a CEO has to display her/his family to be hired? Or maybe you think we should have a nuclear family requirement for elected officials. I personally do not and I could care less if our next president is married with children or single.
I don’t mind CEOs using company/government funds to bring their families along on travel, as long as the regular employees are allowed to do so also (and the regular employees are the ones who would need the financial assistance, much more so than the CEOs.)
I’ll ask again - does this apply to fathers who are governors, or only mothers? Should every governor announce to the voters “if you are voting for me, then realize that my children are part of the package that you are selecting?”
Don’t the individual states have quite a bit of leeway in setting their own rules? Even if the state of California says it’s okay for their governor to bring their family along on the taxpayer dime, why on Earth would that overrule the state of Alaska when they set rules for their own governor?
Has it occured to you that two different organisations are allowed to have different rules regarding expense accounts?
I am completely unable to understand why you think his conclusion is logically unfounded and does not follow your argument.
Are you saying that it would not bother you if Bill Clinton had done what Sarah Palin has done, but that it would bother you if someone else had done it?
You seem to be searching for a sexist boogyman in my position. What’s good for the goose is good for the gander.
I just used the quote function.
Why does it half to be neccessary? What’s neccessary about most public official appearances?
If it isn’t necessary, why should taxpayers foot the bill?
Why should Palin foot the bill? If public business disrupts her family life why should she have to pay to mitigate the disruption. To compare her job to ours is just plain wrong. None of us had to endure the long deprivation inherent in a campaign for a job of limited duration. Hell, if you add up all the hours to secure and execute the governorship it wouldn’t surprise me that we are talking of a job delivering close to minimum wage.
Some of you people are so cheap. If you are worried about the taxpayer, think about the tax deductions for first class air travel and 5 star hotels by business men and sumptuous meals when all the traveller needs to do is carry a box lunch like Joe the Plumber.
I took my kids on some business trips, and while I paid for their travel, I charged their child care to my employer. I didn’t always take them. I was staying in the deluxe hotel with 'em or without 'em but didn’t worry too much about adding their room service charges, either.
And I wasn’t even the governor. Quite far from it, in fact.
I felt like I deserved it, because normal work hours gave me some off time, but when I traveled I was putting in, essentially, double overtime, and there were other times when taking a kid was the only way I could go.
People are bending over backwards to find some scandal to stick on Sarah Palin. Stop it. She’s gonna lose, and two years from now her name will be as forgotten as what’s her name.
As Hilzoy notes, Palin claimed her kids were invited to certain events when they were not: some call that lying. Palin amended expense reports to that effect: some call that falsifying documents.
It appears that China Guy describes it as a potential termination event (I’m paraphrasing).
Wasting taxpayer money on luxury hotels for her kids is one thing. Falsifying expense reports is another. Telling phony stories about how she protects the taxypayer’s interest is a third.
My husband’s job involves considerable travel throughout the ASEAN countries, and this travel is paid for by USAID. Occasionally we (wife and son) go along. We would NEVER dream of asking the US government to pay for our travel, and if we did submit such an expense it would not only be rejected, it would probably result in my husband’s firing, at least if he persisted in doing it after being told it was inappropriate.
That having been said, I don’t necessarily have a problem with the taxpayers of a state covering the expense of having the governor’s* family members come along on trips from time to time, IF it is clear that the auditors/accountants knew about and approved the expense at the time. However, if it should it turn out that:
a) written accounting regulations that Palin should have known about explicitly forbade this, and Palin did it anyway
b) Palin was told by by the accountants/auditors not to do it, and she did it anyway
and/or
c) Palin falsified records to imply that her family was invited when they were not, or they had an official duty to perform when they did not
…then her behavior was unethical.
As far as I know, we do not have clear evidence at the moment of (a), (b), or ©. What I would like to see is for:
-
Palin defenders to agree that if clear evidence comes up showing that (a), (b), or © is true, they will admit her behavior was wrong
-
Palin detractors (of whom I am one) to agree that in the absence of evidence showing (a), (b) or © is true, we should focus our attention on matters of greater import.
Any chance of this happening?
- Regardless of whether the governor is male or female, I don’t see the ethical issues changing based on the gender of the parent
She knew what she was getting into when she ran for office.
She didn’t have to endure anything; she chose to.
Her job paid $112,895.00 in 2007. cite
The current US minimum wage is $6.55 (effective 24 July 2008).
Sarah Palin would have had to have worked 17,235.88 hours for her job to be a minimum wage job. ($112,895/$6.55)
There are only 8760 hours in a year (365x24).
Plus, she hasn’t even been doing her job as governor for more than 2 months now, and I didn’t bother to factor in the $17,000 in per diem payments she received for staying in her own home during her first 19 months in office (I’m generous like that).
That is another issue which has no bearing on how Gov. Palin conducts herself.
FWIW, I think that many business deductions are outrageous, but the IRS keeps refusing to implement any of my plans. 
Is there any excuse you will not make for “your side” - bloody hell man get a critical bone.
From the article:
Maybe he threatened to sic Chewbacca on them if they didn’t let him bring the kids?
Then maybe she should have taken a different job. When other people travel for their jobs, as they said, they didn’t expect the company to shell out if they wanted to bring their families along-THEY paid out of their own pockets. Not to mention, she LIED about it. If it was all right for her to do so, then why the HELL did she have to fudge the expense reports?
Because they are HER children. Not mine, not yours. And I sure don’t want my tax dollars used to fly them around to places they really don’t need to go.
I know a lot of folks in the military that would disagree. Even if you get deployed to a non-combat area you can’t just write your kids into the TDY papers. Its up to you to pay for childcare if you don’t have friends or family willing to look after them. I’m pretty sure Palin makes a lot more money than the average servicemember.
What, her husband couldn’t take care of the kids? Claiming they were on “business” is absurd. They ain’t part of her staff. I’m certain many others have jobs that have long hours and long times away from family.
Whats that got to do with Palin? If some businessman gets a deduction legally what is the problem? The fact is Palin abused her authority in doing this. I know if I get caught forging expenses on a TDY form I’d be in big trouble…and last time I checked Palin and I work for the same government. I have to move soon, and I have to pay out of pocket to fly my pets back to the US. If I were to follow Palin’s example I should try to do some underhanded crap and get the taxpayers to pay for their flight.