Finally Someone in Washington Is Thinking

Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, introduced a bill that would cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money. DUH! 18 Billion dollars was paid out in 2008 in BONUSES. How arrogant!

The economy is tanking and Wall Street executives are not tightening their belts. The stock market is bottoming out (the Dow is at 8000) and these companies are still paying huge bonuses. Citigroup received a 45 billion bailout and were still going to take delivery of a 42 million dollar jet. They decided against it with some encouragement from the Treasury Department. Good choice guys!

But wait, Rudy Giuliani says No Way! If you take bonuses out of the economy there will be more unemployment. Excuse me; so these executives get to keep their tax payer paid bonuses because we can't live with the possible consequences. There is situational ethics at its best.

We cannot reward poor choices and/or bad behavior because employment MAY be impacted. We cannot allow companies to receive tax payers money and then pay their executives not their salaries, but bonuses. There is a higher moral and ethical code at work here. To exempt a group of people from consequences because they may spend a little less is assine.

Millions of families in America have had to and are making hard decisions about their home, cars, insurance, etc. People are loosing their jobs daily and they have no assets to sell or savings to fall back on. Our small town paper has 3 or 4 pages of foreclosures a week. But, we are going to pay out bonuses to those that could easily save and live very comfortably on less than they do at present.

Yes, we each make decisions that effect our lives and the lives of our families. We live in a free nation where each can pretty much choose his or her path. We all must live with the consequences of our lifestyles and spending. But, remember, we are talking about big companies that are asking for government money to save them. I don't know about you, but I don't think if a submit a request for a 'bail out' that the government is going to send me a big fat check. And we have suffered in our business and investments.

I am not bitter, but I am angry. Angry that anyone could turn their head from the suffering going on in our nation and act as if everything is status quo. Angry that our government has gotten so big and involved in the affairs of private companies to the point of giving them money.

The assumption that spending more of the taxpayer’s money will make things better has survived all kinds of evidence that it has made things worse.

Thomas Sowell