More fall-out from rush to pass stimulus bill
Once more we see more fallout from the the ill-advised rush to produce a so-called stimulus bill.
When Congressman Russ Carnahan gave his “state of the District address” at the Affton firehouse, it was clear that he was absolutely clueless. He read a text that he obviously had not written, and apparently had never bothered to read. He was unable to answer any questions coherently, and the entire theme of his talk was that we might not know what we’re doing, but we’d better do it fast.
During Mr. Carnahan’s speech in Affton, one could actually see Nancy Pelosi’s lips moving and could marvel at how she manipulated his strings.
Now Carnahan rushes to the microphone to get in line to decry the evil AIG management that paid out bonuses, and to cosponsor a bill to try to impose a 90% tax on them. The problem is, he voted for the provision in a bill that just had to be rushed through before the public could get wind of what it conatained.
Senator Chris Dodd, who inserted the language specifically allowing the bonus payments (and the biggest recipient of AIG campaign funds, slightly ahead of Barack Obama), first denied knowledge of the provision, then claimed that he never understood that it would actually allow for AIG bonus payments. Treasury Secretary Geithner, who claims to have known nothing before this week, suddenly appears on video tape answering comnittee questions about the upcoming payments nearly three weeks ago.
These actions represent everything that many Americans find reprehensible about Congress and the government in general.
We in Missouri can do nothing about Mr. Dodd. Maybe the good citizens of Connecticut will fire him when he runs for a sixth term next year. In the meantime, we have the opportunity to throw Mr. Carnahan out on the curb next year. We should not miss the chance to do so.
Bob Byrne
St. Louis
If any firm in the nation had employees as dishonest, self serving and incompetent as most members of Congress, they would undoubtedly go out of business. Since that won’t happen and they DO work for us, we should fire them all.