The Obama administration is at least distracted by important things. The Washington political class has spent the past week going into made-for-TV hysterics over $165 million in A.I.G. bonuses. We’re in the middle of a multitrillion-dollar crisis, and our political masters — always willing to throw themselves into any issue that is understandable on cable television — have decided to risk destroying the entire bank-rescue plan because of bonuses that account for 0.001 percent of the annual G.D.P.
[From Op-Ed Columnist - Perverse Cosmic Myopia - NYTimes.com]
-Noted by Midwest Bureau Chief Phil Compton
[Ed Note: True enough, and let the bank-bailout go forth and do its thing, although we humbly beg to offer two wee footnotes:
1) A great many people (and yes, David, this means you) who are now pointing this fact out are among those who screech at similar amounts, in similar proportions, when they can conveniently be labeled "pork."
2) The mere (dare we say mere?) fact that $145 million, in the present circumstances, is just a piddling little amount of money is not an overly persuasive argument for just letting people walk away with it.
]
2 comments:
You're right. They shouldn't walk away with the dough. The taxpayers should get it back. All of it. But public relations oriented congressional committees, in which members compete to be the most indignant, is probably not the best solution.
Agreed. I in fact I'm beginning to think congressional committees are not the best solution to anything much at all.
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