Obama Subverts Congressional Oversight

Seriously? We need to persuade companies "to participate in programs funded by the $700 billion" bailout? The White House thinks so.

Why? Well these "poor" companies "desperate" for government money only want the handouts if they don't come with restrictions about how they may squander the money. Perhaps they're reluctant to take any greater restrictions than those Congress saddled on AIG,: none. It seems financial oversight, like restrictions on lavish executive pay, is a deal-breaker for organizations otherwise willing to accept tax payer cash.

The accommodating Obama administration agrees and has added more bureaucracy to circumvent Congress' attempt at oversight and satisfy the financial demands of companies in need of federal funds. How now brown cow.

Silly me. I thought when a company needs to borrow money than the lender sets the terms and regulates how the money is spend. If a homeowner seeks a home loan, the money can't then be used to buy a car, send a kid to college or pay for fertility treatment. Money borrowed has use restrictions. Why should companies that need bailout bucks get a pass, especially when their only recourse is refusing to accept the money?

President Obama, using "a special-purpose vehicle" to blatantly ignore the terms of Congressional oversight is ingeniousness and insulting. Even the Bush administration decided to apply executive-pay limits to firms participating in the bailout program.

Recovery.gov: Transparency of Farce?

Lovely. Right? Transparency = a web page. Sorry to burst your bubble, Mr. President, but charts and graphs indicating how the money from your American Recovery and Reinvestment Act is being distributed does nothing for actual accountability.


According to recovery.gov $81 billion is going to "Protecting the Vulnerable." Who wouldn't want that? Cold hearted, anti-American folks? Maybe, but maybe those of us that have no idea who this money helps protect. Old people are vulnerable, but so are prisoners and the LGBT community and Iraqis. Is the $81 billion going to help protect all these vulnerable people? Maybe it should, but recovery.gov isn't providing a transparent account of whether it will.

Further more, the $111 billion allocated for "Infrastructure and Science," or any of the other broad and overarching categories, neither provides an exact breakdown of funds nor specifies the individual departments, contractors or organizations that will receive the bailout money. Isn't that the level of transparency we need at this point? Especially after we've seen so many institutions misuse their bailout money -- for parties, executive bonuses, private jets (like the one you used to fly to Chicago on Valentine's Day with Michelle. Too good for the D.C. restaurants or just too indifferent to the costs your romantic dinner levied on tax payers?).

John S Micain & the Debate

Only now do I realize why Sarah Palin noted John McCain's middle initial 'S', for Sidney, when she accepted his invitation to the Republican ticket. This act of performative speech gave her and McCain the leeway to use Barack Obama's middle name, Hussein, when referring to the Democratic nominee for president. And we thought she had no foresight.