"EARNING" MONEY. Former HHS Secretary Tommy Thompson's statement to the Religious Action Center of Reform Judaism -- "I'm in the private sector and for the first time in my life I'm earning money. You know that's sort of part of the Jewish tradition" -- is offensive for obvious reasons. But personally, I'm more offended by the the first part of the statement than the second, because it reflects a casual, unchallenged attitude that has poisoned Washington, and not exclusively Republican Washington.
"For the first time in my life I'm earning money..." Thompson's salary at HHS was $186,000. Even if this was his household's entire income -- which it isn't, his wife works -- it would put them well above the 95th percentile, and is sufficient to pay the mortgage on a perfectly nice house in a good neighborhood in Washington, with plenty left to invest. His salary as governor of Wisconsin was $122,000, plus housing in the 21,000 square foot governor's mansion.
And Thompson probably "earned" those salaries, in the sense that he probably put in a full day and made decisions. And now? Well, he's the "president," but not the CEO, of a company called Logistics Health, Inc. which is a government contractor -- we can guess what that job involves. He's a senior partner at the law firm Akin, Gump, where he "focuses on developing solutions for clients in the health care industry, as well as for companies doing business in the public sector," and he's got at least two other "jobs" as well, at none of which do his bosses seem to care that he's out running for president instead of clocking in at 9:00. So in what sense is he now "earning" money when he didn't before?
Two separate attitudes embodied in this statement drive me crazy. First, there's the casual contempt for government, in the attitude that money one makes in public service doesn't really count, you haven't "earned" it, whereas money from a private-sector employer -- even one that consists entirely of rent-seeking from government -- does. And second, there's the attitude that solid, upper-middle class salaries aren't "real money." That's a New York/L.A. attitude that seems to have infected Washington, and drives, I think, a lot of the corruption there, as people feel entitled to find a way to rake in at least a few million.
And finally, a second observation on Thompson's speech: The Religious Action Center is a wonderful organization, but if Thompson thought he would find any GOP primary voters there, then he really needs to learn a thing or two about Judaism!
--Mark Schmitt