What is the explanation for Tom Price, a physician and
current Secretary of Health and Human Services, taking private charter flights
costing taxpayers hundreds of thousands of dollars? Keep in mind that when Price was a
conservative congressman from Georgia, he would have railed against such fiscal
profligacy. Is it hubris? Entitlement?
Or, do folks who ascend to positions of power simply rationalize that
such excesses are absolute necessities for getting the job done?
By the time this piece is posted, Dr. Price, an orthopedic
surgeon, may have been surgically excised from the government without
anesthesia.
While his behavior is not quite Watergate, it was
wrong. And, if it was not wrong, it
demonstrated impaired judgment. And, if
was not simply a repeated exercise of misjudgments, then it exhibited bad
optics. And, if it somehow passed the
optics test, it was just dumb.
Would Price have been able to explain these expensive
charter flights to average folks, half of whom elected the president to drain
the swamp?
I watched Price’s reaction to all of this in several
interviews. Yes, he agreed to pay ‘his
share’ of the flight costs, which represented a small fraction of the total
costs incurred. He stated that his
department would desist from private charter flights in the future. He admitted that the ‘optics were bad’ and
that previous cabinet secretaries have engaged in similar behavior without
suffering repercussions. He didn’t
appear to me to be a man consumed with guilt.
Sounding the shofar, a call to repentence.
Personally, I don’t think that Price thinks that he did
anything improper. He never clearly
states that he was wrong. Admitting that
he had an ‘optics issue’ is not the same as a confession. Pointing out that prior government officials
committed similar acts with impunity doesn’t sound like a man who knows he has
done wrong.
If he did feel that his flights were proper, then why would
he pay back the government anything or stop future charters? He
could have resigned simply because the president was angry and displeased,
without offering a pseudo-confession to a transgression he did not believe he
had committed.
Yesterday at sundown, ended the Jewish Day of Atonement, Yom
Kippur. This culminates a 10 day period
of reflection and penitence. We are
instructed to beseech forgiveness from the people in our lives before
petitioning the Almighty for absolution.
We cannot receive atonement unless we have first admitted our errors,
repented for them and strive not to repeat them. While I am not a rabbi, I doubt that the
Almighty would grant us a pardon if we looked skyward and cried out: “My Lord, forgive me for demonstrating bad
optics!”
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