Congress Invites Bank CEOs To Large Glass House

Hearings Feature Most Inept People In Country Throwing Rocks At Only Slightly Less Inept Bankers

Pity the poor bank presidents.

After being told they had to accept government bailout money whether they liked it or not, the bankers were forced to come to Washington to have the people most responsible for the current financial crisis break their balls about how they were spending money they didn’t ask for.

It’s kind of like having the kid in your class with cerebral palsy call you a spaz.

The same people who touted the benefits of the Community Reinvestment Act, which made it illegal not to make loans to unqualified home buyers, yesterday railed against the CEOs who made those loans.

The same people who conceived of two quasi-government agencies which existed for the sole purpose of committing tax dollars taken from people who paid their mortgages to guarantee the mortgages of people who didn’t, yesterday complained that the banks misused the system.

The same people who stood by while the Fed and other government agencies created a financial atmosphere where bankers were penalized if they didn’t irresponsibly expand loans, berated bankers for loaning too much money … and then whined because the bankers had stopped making loans.

Predictably, the bank CEOs behaved like little bitches with some agreeing to take no salary or bonus until their bank showed a profit.

There was a noticeable absence of similar offers from members of the Federal government.

No one at the Fed offered to take a one dollar salary until the credit markets were repaired.

Barney Frank and Charles Schumer didn’t offer to resign after repeatedly blocking reforms to FNMA and FreddieMac, ignoring accounting irregularities and encouraging regulators to ease capital requirements on the two agencies that were the linchpins in the current financial crisis.

Charles Rangel didn’t offer to forgo his salary and perks as House Ways and Means chairman until he paid taxes on his villa in the Dominican Republic or reimbursed money for having four rent-controlled apartments used for political purposes.

And, in the meantime, everyone in Washington was hard at work figuring out how to stick it to any person who actually made a responsible financial decision in the last 10 years.

Mission accomplished.

Harry Reid touted a House-Senate compromise on the stimulus bill saying, “More than one-third of this bill is dedicated to providing tax relief for middle-class families, cutting taxes for 95 percent of American workers.”

Care to hazard a guess as to what the other two-thirds of the bill is designed to do?

Let’s just say it may be years before you’re able to sit comfortably….

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At the San Diego zoo, two grizzly bears explain the other two-thirds of the stimulus bill…

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Photo credit: Everystockphoto.com

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