Wednesday, November 26, 2008

Rewarding Incompetence, and Democrats

RPV Chairman Jeff Frederick reviews the rogue's list of beggars and incompetents who have their hand in the public's pocket in the largest taxpayer shakedown in American history.

The Left-Wing, ACORN Bailout of Citigroup

Quick: Can anyone think of an industry that hasn't asked for billions of taxpayer-funded federal bailout money lately? Who ever thought that the Emma Lazarus inscription of "Give me your tired, your poor, your huddled masses" would be adopted by the U.S. Congress as a welcoming call to failed corporate CEOs?

It started with Fannie and Freddie; then AIG insurance; then the banking industry; the auto industry; and now even the paupers in Hollywood have their hands out claiming they have some of that government cash coming their way. Congratulations then to Pauly Shore, Mickey Rooney and the cast of Police Academy 6 -- your bottled water and lithium will continue to flow without interruption!

It's a new day in America when failure is rewarded and those of us who have been responsible and lived within our means get to pay for the negligence of others. And by the way, has anyone even bothered to check to see if the Treasury Secretary having sole discretion to dole out trillions of dollars passes Constitutional muster? Sorry, didn't mean to bring up such minor details.

Now the latest news on this front from the "Office of the President Elect" is the naming of Obama's economic team, which quickly brought cheers from the financial markets and nearly every political corner to boot. But what's all the cheering for exactly? I hate to play Scrooge in the middle of all this holiday merriment, but isn't Obama's "new" team comprised of protégés of former Treasury Secretary and current Citigroup executive Robert Rubin? A quick check with Google confirms it: yes, they are.

This is kind of hard to get excited about, considering that Rubin is one of the key culprits in extending Citigroup's risk portfolio that helped lead it to insolvency. So, the guys we're now counting on to fix the economy with trillions of dollars in bailout money learned most of what they know at the knee of a man who helped bankrupt one of the oldest and most trusted financial institutions in America. Nice.

Now we're finding out a little bit more about how Citi spent its money, which apart from billions in bad investments also included millions paid to far-left groups like ACORN; the radical environmental group World Resources Institute; the pro-illegal immigration La Raza; and countless other similar comrades.

So here?s what we've got to cheer about:
  • Obama appoints an economic team from the Robert Rubin school of economics;
  • Rubin captained Citigroup financial into an iceberg;
  • Citi now gets billions in federal bailout money;
  • ACORN, La Raza and a bevy of other far-left groups were paid millions in "leave us alone" money by Citi before their accounts ran dry;
  • Ergo you and I (what the government likes to call "bailout payees") have more of the money we worked for involuntarily subsidizing left-wing groups that seek to defeat us every election season.
And who says America is anything but a generous country?

Jeffrey M. Frederick, Chairman
Republican Party of Virginia