Why is it that Congress can manufacture outrage at the ‘wasteful’ bonuses at AIG, but not at themselves for the truly large amount of wasted money going into earmarks — those pesky thinks our new President said he’d be doing away with earlier? AIG has received, according to the Wall Street Journal’s reporting, about $170 billion in ‘rescue, bailout’ or whatever it is called this week. It’s also stated that AIG executives awarded $165 million in bonuses. Doing the math reveals this to be less than one percent of all the money received.
According to a Harvard study earmarks and pork projects make up between one and two percent of the entire budget. That’s not including overspending on programs destined to fail, either. So, while the same members of Congress divide wealth handed to them in the form of taxes they sit quietly dividing up amongst themselves, but when another group gets money they haven’t earned, well that must be rallied against and labeled as wasteful, shameful, and worthy of taking back. When will the citizens of the United States rally against the waste in Washington the same way?
Executives have contracts, private contracts, but nothing that cannot be pulled into a congressional inquiry if so desired. Were they? One is lead to assume they were not. So not only is Congress hypocritical in the most fundamental of ways, but they are also innept when it comes to knowing how to think ahead and secure good, meaningful legislation. Who wants these failures taking more of your money and making more decisions in your lives?
Zeno Sees, Zeno Writes 