Well, it was bound to happen: The week-long diatribe engaged in by President Barack Obama and the Congress against AIG bonuses has so fomented a populist desire for revenge, that Obama’s next move to ask Congress for another $750,000,000,000 in bailout funds has been pulled off the table and will resurface in another form.
Don’t misunderstand. I’m not now and never was in favor of AIG executives getting bonuses within a company that is in severe distress, while it simultaneously accepts billions in federal cash infusions. But there is a big difference between justice and vengeance. And there is just as big a difference between seeking accountability and trotting out the guillotine.
This is America, not revolutionary France of the late 18th century where opponents’ heads were chopped off by an outraged populace. Nor is this Japan of the Samurai era where the seppuku honor code of death was employed to remit shame.
Don’t take my word for it: Republican Senator Charles Grassley of Iowa has already called for AIG executives to either “resign or go commit suicide” by falling on their swords hara-kiri style.
Grassley has since backed off from his original statement, subsequently saying that, “we need to show some act of contrition on the part of CEOs that run their corporations into the ground.” And what, Senator Grassley, do we do about Washington politicians who run their country into the ground?
MONDAY: President Obama’s Next Move.
No comments:
Post a Comment