Who is bailing out whom?

This past week the US House of Representatives passed an order proposing a 90 percent tax on bonuses to employees of companies that received federal bailout money. I know this probably goes against popular opinion on so many levels, but you can't give or lend people money and then place stipulations after you give it. Next, what most people don't realize is that that most Fortune 500 companies don't just offer bonuses to their executives, but to all employees; even the ones making $9 to $15 per hour. Granted these employees aren't receiving large bonuses, but the accumulation of all these bonuses will be devastating to local economies across the country. Finally, there is the arrogant presumption of the House of Representatives who is punishing executives for running their companies into an unmanageable deficit while congress has been voting themselves pay raises while this country has been operating at a deficit since the 1940's!

It is incredibly shortsighted to lend or give money to these companies and then place stipulations after the fact. First of all, these executives who received the bonuses are all under contract based on revenues, cost reduction, and budget maintenance; even while the company is operating in the red. If the companies didn't pay these bonuses, the executives would have a guaranteed law suit against their employers. I supposed congress could have mandated that these bankrupted companies renegotiate contracts with their executives before they received their bailout money, but they did not. Imagine the bank loans a family money to buy a house and in the loan agreement only gave the details for repayment and management of the loan. So after the loan has been paid and repayment has begun the bank starts mandating what color the family can paint the walls or whether or not they can have any more children. Finally, the federal government didn't just give bailouts to the "Big Three" automakers and banks; they gave us all a bailout in terms of stimulus checks. What sort of outrage would there be if congress mandated how we could all spend our individual stimulus checks or tax refunds?

I work for a major shipping company. At the end of every quarter we receive a bonus check based on company revenue, production efficiency, and minimizing OSHA accidents. This is a practice that is generally held by most Fortune 500 companies whose workforce is based on manual labor. Now my last bonus check was around $50, but think about how much money that is spread over the entire blue collar workforce in this country. The "Big Three" automakers, who all received bailout money, employ 240,000 people in this country. That comes out to roughly $12 million each quarter or $48 million per year. With such a large number of these "Big Three" employees working in Detroit, think of what a detriment that would be to their local economy! With people moving out of that area in droves, a few million dollars per quarter would be a huge detriment to an already flailing economy.

On a side note, I love that former professional pitcher Roger Clemens was indicted for lying to congress when everybody in congress lies to congress! That is why I ironically love the idea of the US House of Representatives reprimanding executives of bankrupted companies that received bailouts while those same congressmen and women are operating this country under a deficit; all the while voting themselves pay raises. I propose that congress also pass a 90 percent retroactive income tax on all salaries that congress and the President have received above their 1940 salary when the national debt began. If we really want to punish this sort of behavior then maybe we should start at the very, very top of our social hierarchy and work our way down. This might seem farfetched, but how about we let our country's criminals write our crime legislation or let race car drivers set the speed limit?

Now I know when most people heard about this legislation, they though "right on!" The point I'm trying to make is that this is a more complicated, far-reaching piece of legislation that people realize. This won't just punish those "fat cat" executives, but it will punish hard working Americans and local communities. This is just a typical congressional overreaction in an attempt to pander to voters without thinking of the social and economic implications. This legislation will absolutely not make any headway in the attempt to change corporate corruption. It will only be another in a long line of failed, hypocritical attempts by congress to take money out of the pockets of hard working Americans to bailout a woefully inefficient federal government that is $14,300,132,000 in debt… $14,300,133,000… $14,300,135,000…