Welfare Bankers

Ronald Reagan was fond of deriding America’s welfare queens during his presidential heyday. Now in this time of economic travail we have welfare bankers.

 During the past eight years many of us knew that something revolutionary was going on but failed to connect the diamond dots of the rich and pampered. In effect we had been indirectly – thru tax cuts for the rich -- redistributing our income to their advantage since the time of Reagan. In Reagan’s time we had bailouts by taxpayers too: the Savings and Loans.

But many have been too busy working two jobs, paying taxes and borrowing on our home’s equity to keep up with the society pages to see how profligately the rich play.

Even now when many Americans are suffering, we notice more, for it involves money that we have given to rescue our banks. But apparently we have rescued a continuation of plush parties for our well-heeled welfare recipients, the bank leaders who reward themselves and rich clients.

This I learned today when I did my usual perusal of newspaper columnists. This time it was Maureen Dowd, relating a TMZ story about a lush party in LA hosted by Northern Trust for its privileged employees and customers. This is the same bank that just took $1.6 billion of our hard-earned money.

You will be glad to know that you helped to make this possible. A hundred were put up at the Beverly Wilshire, and several hundred enjoyed the Loews Santa Monica Beach Hotel, the Ritz Carlton and the Casa Del Mar in Santa Monica.

Were any of you invited?

Swank dinners, cocktails parties, the best entertainment and a golf tournament amounted to an estimate of more than 10 million dollars. Before their departure for this party, they already awarded booby prizes: 450 workers were laid off.

Now I don’t know about you, but I thought that surely these gold-cage leaders would not have the unadulterated nerve to openly throw our money away, in effect, blowing us off like they are the lieges and we are the plebeians, especially after the dressing down others of their ilk got when President Obama chastised them for taking millions in bonuses, using our welfare money.

But you might feel better knowing that the bank didn’t really need our $1.6 billion. The bank did us a favor by taking the money, for it asserted that it earned an operating net income of $641 million last year.

Tuesday night I heard President Obama say that this time CEO’s won’t be able to use taxpayer money to pad their paychecks or buy fancy drapes, and that these days are over.

Can we dare hope, when today the BBC reported that the Bush administration and Congress lost $23 billion in Iraq in the process of throwing billions at inept contractors at the beginning of the Iraqi war, this from shrink-wrapped bricks of $100 bills flown into Iraq on cargo pallets.

And regarding more recent events, we saw John Thain – under orders by a judge -- admit that Merrill Lynch employees illegally got $3.6 billion in bonuses as it was failing and being taken over by Bank of America with the help of our $45 billion bailout.

Add to that insult the admission by Kenneth Lewis, the B of A CEO that they’re $7 billion off on the estimate of losses for the fourth quarter.

And by the way, he cannot adjust the illegal bonuses.

You want justice? Try stealing money from your bank and see how quickly you are thrown in jail.