Sorry Claire, you can't call them stupid if you gave them the money in the first place

Missouri Democrat Claire McCaskill was livid last week when she took the Senate floor. It seems that many of the companies that applied for “bailout” money have been using the funds to award mammoth bonuses to senior staff at a time when most stakeholders and many Americans are hemorrhaging money.

It’s too bad the McCaskill and the rest of congress is so out of touch that they couldn’t see this coming back in October of 2008. Now, after we – and by we, I mean U.S. tax payers – have already shelled out hundreds of billions of dollars…and another “stimulus” package is on its way.

McCaskill’s righteous indignation led her to introduce a bill that would limit compensation to corporate executives to $400,000 – the same salary as the president (any one else think our last president was over-paid??). McCaskill even went so far as to accuse Merrill Lynch and others as being stupid for trying to get away with schemes to use bailout money to pay year-end bonuses.

I’m sorry Claire, they aren’t stupid. It’s Congress that is stupid for giving these corporations the money in the first place with precious few strings attached. It's like giving money to a junkie and expecting them to pay for rehab, then expressing dismay when they go out and buy dope. The corporate C-class are greedy. And is many cases, criminally so. They are the ones that have helped derail the economy. And Congress' answer? Give them more money! Republican Charles Grassley has his rhetoric in the right place: take back the money from companies that used bailout funds to line the pockets of their CEOs. But that, of course, is only rhetoric.

News flash: America is a consumer based economy and has been for decades. We are no longer a manufacturing based economy. So someone please explain to me why we are trying to save the contemptible leaches who care more about lining their own pockets than saving the actual drivers of our economy?

If we are going to have a stimulus package that actually gets this country back on track, we need to focus our efforts on American tax-paying consumers. That means helping Americans to eradicate debt – to provide a means to strengthen consumer purchasing power. That means a hard cap on the interest banks can charge for credit cards. It means allowing home owners to redo their mortgages (on PRIMARY residences only). It means allowing consumers who became over extended through predatory LOC loans to negotiate new rates. It means reintroducing (temporarily) the ability for consumers to declare the interest paid on credit cards on their tax returns. It means providing money to America’s agri-businesses in the way of loans and support prices that are actually at or above the cost of production. It means providing financial aid to companies only if the money is used to directly benefit consumers.

So forgive me Claire and Chuck – I appreciate your indignation…but you’ve already left the barn door open…and the pigs are feeding at the trough. What is unforgivable is that you didn’t see this coming months ago when most of America was decrying the bailout for what it is: a corporate cash cow paid for by American taxpayers.

Now the Republicans will try to villify Obama for the economy...which, as my friend Nathan said, is like blaming a coroner for not being able to revive a corpse.