Barack Obama: The New And Improved Kenneth Lay

Hardhatters ^ | 05/20/2013 | Hal Hawkins

[thetallguy24]

Remember Enron? Remember Kenneth Lay? How about the tens of billions that were lost in that scandal? It was a series of events that will be talked about for decades to come, yet history seems to be repeating itself in 2013. Not in the private sector, but in the Federal government.

For those who may not know or need a refresher in history, Enron was once one of the largest companies in the world. Its business was primarily in the energy sector. Unfortunately, accounting fraud and corruption led to its ultimate downfall, one of the largest bankruptcies in history, and the death of the major accounting company Arthur-Andersen. People were angry and understandably so. Tens of thousands of jobs were lost, pensions dried up, and stock prices plummeted. Tens of billions of dollars of Americans' money was lost. The victims wanted to know whom to blame.

In an attempt to cover this mess up, Arthur-Andersen shredded thousands of Enron's records and Enron's CFO Andrew Fastow was fired. Unfortunately for Enron, it was too little too late. The Securities and Exchanges Commission (SEC) began a formal investigation. Shortly thereafter, Enron filed for bankruptcy.

So, in comes Kenneth Lay, CEO and Founder of Enron. Facing a bankrupt company and criminal indictment, he resigns and turns himself in to the FBI. He acknowledges overall responsibility for the company due to his position as CEO, but places criminal blame on underlings. His defense is that Enron is such a large company he could not possibility not know all of actions taking place. Ultimately, he was found guilty as were many others.

Let's fast forward to 2013. The Internal Revenue Service (IRS) acknowledges wrongdoing in the targeting of conservative groups who were seeking tax-exempt status. Pres. Obama denies any previous knowledge of this incident, but states that responsible parties will be held accountable. Acting IRS Commissioner Steven Miller resigns. Starting to see some parallels?

Let's take a look at statements made on both scandals. Maybe you will see some similarities. The quotes from Ken Lay come from a single press conference he had when he turned himself in.

Obama Administration	Kenneth Lay
"I’ve reviewed the Treasury Department watchdog’s report, and the misconduct that it uncovered was inexcusable. It’s inexcusable, and Americans are right to be angry about it, and I’m angry about it." - Barack Obama, Statement by the President, 05/15/2013	The Enron collapse was enormous tragedy. I continue to grieve, as does my family, over the loss of the company, my failure to be able to save it, and the tremendous hardship that caused so many employees, retirees, and others. But failure does not equate to a crime.
“If you look at the Inspector General’s report, apparently some folks down in the bureaucracy, and you know we have a large government, took it upon themselves to shorthand these applications for tax exempt status in a way that was, as I said, idiotic, and also dangerous because of the political implications.” - David Axelrod, MSNBC's Morning Joe	Scott, primarily when I say responsibility, I was Chairman and CEO of the company throughout much of the period in question. And in that role ultimately, I have to accept responsibility for anything good and anything bad that went on in the company. And indeed, I do that.
“Part of being president is there’s so much underneath you because the government is so vast,” he added. “You go through these [controversies] all because of this stuff that is impossible to know if you’re the president or working in the White House, and yet you’re responsible for it and it’s a difficult situation.” - David Axelrod, MSNBC's Morning Joe	But we need to keep in mind also that this is a company that had over 30,000 employees, in over 30 different countries, had over 500 vice presidents and above, reporting to a management committee of about 24 or 25 senior executives that ultimately reported to the Office of the Chairman, made up of myself and one or two other people. And clearly, with a company that size, and that diverse and growing rapidly, you have a lot of senior officers that have a lot of authority in which you place enormous trust. And in the process of doing that in over 30 some years, I have found that for the most part, those that I’ve put in those positions and I’ve entrusted to those positions have, in fact, justified that trust.
"Today, Secretary Lew took the first step by requesting and accepting the resignation of the acting commissioner of the IRS (Steven Miller), because given the controversy surrounding this audit, it’s important to institute new leadership that can help restore confidence going forward." - Barack Obama, Statement by the President, 05/15/2013	Clearly in this case, there was at least one, Andy Fastow, who betrayed that trust. And he betrayed it very, very badly. And that caused an enormous amount of damage at Enron and ultimately caused Enron’s collapse. To the extent that I did not know what he was doing, and he obviously didn’t share with me what he was doing, then indeed I cannot take responsibility for what he did.
When a reporter asked Carney, “Can you say categorically no one in the White House was involved in any way in the targeting of Tea Party groups?” he responded unhesitatingly, “Yes.” - 05/15/2013, White House Press Briefing	But I can take responsibility as Chairman and CEO with what happened to Enron because I did, in fact, have some role with him being in that position.
"I can assure you that I certainly did not know anything about the [inspector general] report before the I.G. report had been leaked." - Barack Obama, 05/16/2013

Let's try to connect the dot:

• Both Obama and Lay are Chief Executives.
• The U.S. government and Enron have taken lots of money from people and lost it
• Both the Obama Administration (and Obama) and Ken Lay are upset about what went wrong.
• An officer/official gets fired or scapegoated
• Obama and Lay claim, essentially, the buck stops with them by virtue of their positions
• However, both deny any direct knowledge of what was going on.
• Blame falls on a government/company that is too big and employees who betrayed trust
• Lay resigns and gets charged with crimes. Obama goes to play golf.

So why was Lay responsible and Obama not? Well, one was in the private sector, and the other is the President of the United States.

In the wake of Enron as well as others (Worldcom, etc.), Congress enacted a law to help prevent these scandals from happening again. The bill was Sarbanes-Oxley, one of the biggest expansions of regulations over corporations in history. One of its components (Sec. 906) ensures that, whenever financial wrongdoing in a company is committed, the criminal responsibility also falls on the officers, such as the CEO and CFO. In what seems to be the usual practice, the law only involves the private sector. Congress left out government entities who may do the same.

If the Obama administration were a corporation, I am pretty sure the picture would be different. Beneath the surface, both Lay and Obama are the same. New and improved simply means elected and unmoved.

[thetallguy24]

It's funny how so many are comparing Obama to Nixon. Why aren't we comparing him to Lay or Ebbers?

There is such a double standard right now. If Obama was the CEO of a private corp, he would be in handcuffs.

[SpinnerWebb]

and where is Ken Lay now?

[thetallguy24]

In a grave in the mountains

[DownInFlames]

Died of a heart attack b4 going to prision.

[HenpeckedCon]

Enron’s demise was entirely predictable. They hitched their wagon on “global warming.” Carbon credits was their grand plan for riches.

[thetallguy24]

So you must have gotten rich from selling short on Enron, right? lol

[piasa]

Obama and Ken Lay both supported the Carbon Credit scam too...