Yeah...Really "Concerned"

From CNN (emphasis mine):

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNN Thursday his department asked Sen. Chris Dodd to include a loophole in the stimulus bill that allowed bailed-out insurance giant American International Group to keep its bonuses.

In an interview with CNN's Ali Velshi, Geithner said the Treasury Department was particularly concerned the government would face lawsuits if bonus contracts were breached.

So, Geithner’s the man who created the loophole. This has to be one of the lamest excuses I’ve ever heard. Let me get this straight. The auto industry and others of its ilk force unions to rework their contracts to the detriment of the workers in order for the industries to be solvent. Yet the wealthy financial executives “scare” our government into thinking lawsuits will ensue if the bonus contracts aren’t honored to aid in their future solvency? Are you frakkin’ kidding me?

“Concerned” my a**. This is a spin job from the word go. Not a chance was “concern” EVER in the mix. Cronyism at its finest. I’m glad he confessed and got Dodd off the hook though I’m sure he had no choice, or he would have never admitted it.

Geithner should be tossed out on his ear.

No Fingerprints...No Accountability...No Joy

Of course, everyone is aware of what’s going on re the bonuses being given to AIG executives, even though they tanked the economy with their “expertise” in finance. But right now I’m really incensed about one part of the whole debacle.

There was a provision in the stimulus package that would have helped deter the huge bonuses. Somehow, that provision magically disappeared from the final bill.

Even more magically, no one is admitting to pulling the provision out of the bill. Here is what Ariana Huffington wrote about it:

The mystery over who killed a provision in the stimulus package that would have curtailed bonuses at bailed out companies is a disturbing D.C. whodunit. But even more disturbing is what it reveals about how our government is run. "It is the ultimate indictment of what Washington has become," Sen. Ron Wyden, co-sponsor of the eliminated provision told me. "It's a place where, again and again, the public interest is deep-sixed without any fingerprints." Wyden has no idea who killed the provision. And, so far, no one in the administration of a president who promised that transparency would be a "touchstone" of his presidency has demanded that whoever is responsible own up to it. We deserve better.

The key line for me in this quote is:

It is the ultimate indictment of what Washington has become… It's a place where, again and again, the public interest is deep-sixed without any fingerprints.

And there you have it, folks. This is our government today and for what I would say the last fifty years or so. The politicos come out on TV or Radio and say something like “The American people are not going to stand for this” or some such nonsense. As if they represent "the American people," when in fact they don't give a G*****n about "the American people." They’re doing everything behind the curtain to stab “the American people” in the back in order to further their own ends.

What scares me most is what have they been doing behind our backs that we don’t know about? Somebody blithely extracted that provision thinking nobody would be the wiser. Unfortunately for him or her, it’s blown into a huge mess. Hopefully, this person will be outed and ousted. He or she should be appropriately vilified for putting himself or herself ahead of the people and tossed out of office.

But that begs the larger question. Who lately has blithely forsaken the American people for their own self-interest, and we don’t even know about it…perhaps we’ll never know that something that could have greatly enhanced our lives was secretly eliminated because it was counter to the interests of a select privileged few.

We elected these charlatans, people! It’s time for a major housecleaning.