Now We Can See Why Open Government Is the Only Way to Go

Of course, the corruption goes much deeper. While public money was being funneled into the banks and other financial institutions, those same institutions were using some of this taxpayer largesse to lobby Congress to do even more. Just between October 1 and the end of 2008, 18 recipients of TARP funds reported spending nearly $15 million on lobbying efforts in Washington. Among the biggest bailout-recipient/lobbyists: American Express ($1.1 million), AIG ($1.1 million), B of A ($$880,000), Citigroup ($1.5 million), Goldman Sachs ($720,000), JPMorgan Chase ($1.1 million), Wells Fargo ($580,000). These amounts represent quite an investment considering that these firms all received, in return for their TARP lobbying efforts, billions of dollars in bailout money.

Remember, Paulson’s original plan was to have even the TARP direct bailout grants kept secret from the public. That idea didn’t fly. But many of these companies that used their public funds to lobby for more public funds also received secret bonus bailouts via AIG.

So here’s what happens when you have secret government. The public gets royally shafted.

Now that the story is coming out, the crooks in Congress, the White House and at Treasury and the Fed are desperately trying to lull us all back to sleep by feigning anger at the relatively paltry sums AIG is handing out in bonuses to some of the crooks and scheisters on its staff.

We should not put our heads down on the pillow being offered, though.

The lesson here is that we need open government, and that we need to demand that our media not go for the cheap and easy story being handed out by government press release.

Also, there’s this last thought: If you thought that the banking mess was a horrible rip-off, just try to imagine what level of corruption there must be in the Pentagon and the Intelligence programs that have been operating in absolute secrecy and with no scrutiny for decades!

Baa-a-a-a-a-a-a.
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DAVE LINDORFF is a Philadelphia-based journalist. His latest book is “The Case for Impeachment” (St. Martin’s Press, 2006 and now available in paperback edition). His work is available at www.thiscantbehappening.net