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Lawrence Summers nervously appeared on “This Week With George Stephanopoulos” this morning with the first topic of discussion being the giant insurance leviathan, A.I.G.’s release of one hundred sixty million dollars in bonuses. Summers’ rationalization for the government’s impotence in enforcing fiscal responsibility with A.I.G. was to say winsomely, “A contract is a contract.” He kept repeating those words as if they were his new mantra, perhaps thinking that such absurd repetition would lend them a legitimacy that they certainly didn’t have to begin with.
Senate minority “leader”, Mitch McConnell’s take on the situation was that the evil doers who were planning to take federal money hurriedly entered into contracts to pay bonuses, but, “We all know contracts are valid in this country.”
When the discussion panel was up, George Will saw a difficulty in reconciling the administration’s position with a plan to allow judges to abrogate mortgage contracts, but only Robert Kuttner of “The American Prospect” had the consistency of principle to point out how easily broken the United Auto Workers contracts were thought to be. This was a distinction that George Stephanopoulos, in plying his Eunuch of Journalism degree, missed completely.
And there we have the disconnect in reason. While the right screams for the automakers bankruptcy for no purpose other than to tear up labor contracts, they hold the contracts in this transparent fraud by A.I.G. to be sacrosanct. They say that working people have no claim to a contract to make a living wage, but already wealthy insurance executives are entitled by their contract to one hundred sixty million taxpayer dollars in their bonus envelopes.
Yet another question that went unasked and unanswered is, “How is it that bonuses are paid by contract?” A bonus is defined as “something given or paid in addition to what is usual or expected.” It seems to me that a contract governing its payment would make it both usual and expected.
Alternatively, a bonus is defined as a “gratuity given as a gift, or compensation earned as a reward upon achieving a goal or milestone.” Are we to suppose that the milestone sought was to trash the company to the point of eligibility for one hundred eighty five billion taxpayer dollars in bailouts?
It is enough to make one wonder what it will take to see some of these jokers in the docket, mulling over what kind of contract they’ll have with their cellmates.
In conclusion, the question that must be addressed to Larry Summers is, “Larry, do you realize that these guys are playing you like a fiddle, or are you actually writing the tune?” The question that cries out to be asked of Mitch McConnell is, ”Shut up, Mitch, you friggin’ duplicitous idiot!” That’s a suitable question, isn’t it?
