What should Obama do with the 10 million kronor prize?

[MilesColtrane]

That's about 1.4 million dollars.

Should he put it away for his kid's college expenses?

...donate it to charity?

If so, which one?

Any other creative suggestions for the cash?

[niceypoo]

1. Donate it to Acorn

[11 Bravo]

5. You beat me to it.

:toast:

[MilesColtrane]

10. That has an 'in your face' quality that I like.

:thumbsup:

[BlooInBloo]

24. And that's the end of this thread. Wonder why people are bothering with other replies.

[polichick]

2. The WH has announced that it will all go to charity...

But I don't see why he can't use it for the girls' education.

[imdjh]

12. Because his girls aren't a charity and he can't accept a personal gift of that size.

[polichick]

14. Is that considered a personal gift?? nt

[imdjh]

19. Here's an article by a Bush minion on the subject.

Can Obama keep or re-gift Nobel cash?

Along with the Nobel Peace Prize President Barack Obama unexpectedly won while he was sleeping this morning comes a cash prize of about $1.4 million, but he intends to give the entire amount to charity, a White House spokesman said this afternoon.

Government ethics experts said he would be ill-advised to keep it or even to turn it over to charity. And it might be illegal for him to hang on to or re-gift the cash.

"Traditionally, presidents have returned gifts of this magnitude, as any other federal employee would be required to do if the gift were given because of official position, but I am not sure what would be done with this one," said Richard Painter, a White House ethics counsel under President George W. Bush.

While turning the 10 million Norwegian kronor over to charity might seem like a common-sense approach, that may not be the best idea either, said Painter, now a law professor at the University of Minnesota.

"Turning the gift over to charity is something we usually would advise against in the Bush Administration," he said. "For anybody, including the President and Vice President, it creates tax problems. The gift is still income and then the employee takes a tax deduction for the charitable contribution. There are limits to charitable deductions that are allowed. The President could end up owing some tax."

Whether it would be illegal, strictly speaking, for Obama to keep or re-gift the money may have to do with whether the Nobel Committee could be considered part of the Norwegian Government. The peace-prize panel is appointed by the Norwegian Parliament. (In fact, according to Wikipedia, the panel was once known as the "Nobel Committee of the Norwegian Parliament ."

The Constitution provides: "No title of nobility shall be granted by the United States: and no person holding any office of profit or trust under them, shall, without the consent of the Congress, accept of any present, emolument, office, or title, of any kind whatever, from any king, prince, or foreign state."

"That is a concern," Painter said. "I’d think that ought be run by the State Department or the Office of Legal Counsel at Justice....Anything he does with that prize is really an official act. Ot seems to me if I were giving him counsel I'd say accept the prize without the money."

As a gift of more than minimal value from a foreign government, Obama's prize would be "deemed to have been accepted on behalf of the United States and, upon acceptance, shall become the property of the United States," according to federal law.

The White House has not yet indicated which charities Obama plans to give the money to.

Painter said one potential option would be for Obama to ask the Nobel Committee to give the money to charities it selects.

Posted by Josh Gerstein 01:19 PM
comments (30)post a comment

[jaxx]

23. What did Wilson do with his prize money?

There should be some kind of precedent there.

Any way to find out?

[imdjh]

27. Whores and crack, I think.

[onenote]

30. this article says he used it to buy a house in DC after he left office

http://www.washingtonlife.com/2006/09/01/happy-birthday-mr-president/

[backscatter712]

26. The option in the last sentence seems to make sense for avoiding legal hassles.

Just tell the Nobel Committee "I can't accept the money myself, but could you donate the money to these charities on my behalf?"

[imdjh]

28. Danger Will Robinson!!!!!

Then you have people O can't actually control acting on his behalf. So the Nobelites give the money to some terrorist charity in Gaza and the Republicans start chanting that Hussein Obama gave money to terrorists.

[slackmaster]

3. Give it to me

I'd love to have that kind of money to invest right now.

[connecticut yankee]

4. It's his money

he can spend it however he wishes.

[MilesColtrane]

9. So, I'll put you down for "no opinion".

[connecticut yankee]

29. No --

what I meant was that we have no say in the matter.

[Arkana]

6. Hookers and blow.

:evilgrin:

[Generic Brad]

7. David Vitter has a foundation?

[trotsky]

13. LMAO

Nice one. :thumbsup:

[vadawg]

8. as suggested elsewhere a bugatti veyron

[Stevenmarc]

15. Yeah but the armor plating will slow it down to a tad under 200mph

[vadawg]

21. fuck the armoured plating, it will be going to fast especially if i drive

and i get to use the special lane on the beltway i would just do 250mph laps all day....

[Karmadillo]

11. Help finance the Forever War in Afghanistan and Iraq?

nt

[Cirque du So-What]

16. $1M would finance

about 20 minutes' worth of occupation.

[Karmadillo]

25. Every little bit helps. Shouldn't he put his money where his policies are?

nt

[Orwellian_Ghost]

17. Chip in

to the single-payer health fund so as to avoid deficit neutral syndrome?

:shrug:

[Tigress DEM]

18. Put it into the Social Security fund & lock the box nt

[nightrain]

20. donate it to a Saul Alinsky community agency in Chicago's Southside

[bigwillq]

22. Give it to the American taxpayer

Pay back for the bailouts.

[dysfunctional press]

31. donate it to the norwegian town that lost all it's money in the u.s. mortgage meltdown.

http://www.nytimes.com/2007/12/02/world/europe/02norway.html?pagewanted=all

U.S. Credit Crisis Adds to Gloom in Norway