Mar 20, 2009

Who should have a retrospective 90% windfall tax?

What really gripes me is not the robbers on Wall Street -- that's their job, (to rob legally) and we all knew it. And we loved it when our kids or their friends got big bucks with hedge funds or whatever. Wall Street is what it is.
BUT, the CONGRESS! It is what it says it isn't! What it isn't is the representative of the people's interest. What it is is an institution rife with craven, cowardly, corrupt and even lazy thespians, who created the very institutional framework that has brought us down. Imagine an institution that votes on December 15, at the very end of a President's term (2000), on a bill to prohibit all regulation of CDS's (credit default swaps) or CDOs (collateralized debt obligations), which has neither been reported out of a committee or subjected to ANY debate on the floor -- throws that bill into a 12th hour appropriations bill to keep the government running -- and approves it overwhelmingly (292 to 60 in the House--see how your congressman voted) and by "unanimous consent" in the Senate. (See the awful story in Wikipedia.)
If those yea'ers and consenters and no-show-ers argue that they didn't know because the bill was slipped into a vote at the last minute, couldn't shut down government by denying appropriations, or depended on their leadership to have done the homework, we should figuratively string 'em up by turning them out of office. But, if even one were to issue the following statement:

"I want to apologise to my consitutiuents; I let this happen because I was ignorant, [acceptable alternatives: asleep at the wheel, overly dependent on hedge fund PACs for campaign contributions, completely uncurious about how the financial system works, happy that I could get my own bills slipped into law in the dead of pre-Christmas recess night, unwilling to challenge a system that works so well for my own longevity in Congress, thought that the pros in the Clinton Admin (Rubin/Summers) were taking care of things]. All I really cared about at the time was staying in office and getting home early for Christmas. I let you, my constituents down, and to make up for it I will work diligently to force my party and institution to change its rules regarding last minute piggy-backing of bills onto appropriations bills. I will never again vote for an appropriations bill that contains anything but appropriations. I will also introduce legislation to impose a retrospective 90% windfall tax on my salary of 2000-2008 to pay back the taxpayer for my misdeeds."
I would stand up and vote for such a congressman. (And maybe even send him/her $10 donation!)

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