$18.4 Billion in Bonuses: Don’t Blame Wall Street!

Okay, what don’t the American public, Congress, and the President understand? You gave money to people who are in the business of making money—ANY WAY THEY CAN. You gave them the money with little or no strings attached and now you want to complain? That’s both stupid and ineffective; controls should have been put in place to ensure that taxpayer dollars were being spent as intended. At least, as a public sector contracts manager, I’m sworn and held accountable to do. And that’s the problem: no one is held accountable. Wall Street got themselves into this mess with shady deals, questionable investment practices; executives got their companies into this mess because they were more concerned with rewarding the stockholders and themselves than the overall health of their companies; banks got themselves into this mess by granting loans to people who obviously could not afford them; and the American public got itself into this mess by buying more than they could afford. Now, when the curtain falls and the show is a flop, no one wants to be held accountable.

You know, accountability is not all that hard, we, as citizens, just need to ask a few questions.

Write your President, Senator, and Representative today and ask them:

• President Obama, why did you, as a Senator, agree with a bailout plan that put little or no controls on how the taxpayer’s money could be spent?
• Congressman, why did you do the same?
• Are there no provisions to take the money back? Are there no sanctions?
• Mr. President, Congress, have you put provisions to safeguard taxpayer interest on the money you are about to give them?

You may contact your Congress via this online link from Contacting The Congress. White House.gov has a convenient online form you can use to contact your President.

And by the way Mr. President, if this happens again, don't call names, take the darn money back!