ONLY a Half-Million? Whatever Shall We Do?!

So don't take this President Obama for a complete sucker. He may look like a guy who is willing to throw billions and billions and billions and billions and billions and billions of dollars at a problem but don't count on him to just make a recommendation without making sure all of the funds are in order.

Killefer doesn't count. Daschle does a little bit, but he already owned up to that one.

In the wake of a collective realization that being the head of a major corporation is a lucrative gig (I had NO idea), Americans are suddenly angered by the fact that these people the government bailed out due to incompetency are acting incompetent by making no changes to retaining their multi-million dollar bonuses.

Also, it seems some of these companies that are now rolling in money aren't exactly being frugal.

Wells Fargo planned a lavish corporate outing to Las Vegas in what was sure to be "just business," so long as that business is always conducted in the background of a beer-soaked private Jimmy Buffett concert. Puts a new spin on "Wasting Away Again in Margaritaville," don't it?

AIG execs could barely stand all of that pressure mounting about their $85 billion bailout and needed $440,000 on spa treatments for executives. Now that every body's nails are manicured and skin is properly exfoliated, they'll surely be able to get down to business.

Obama says he'll have none of that hot mess, putting his top economan, Treasury Secretary Timothy F. "Muscle Beach" Geithner, on the case to make sure that these executives are paid no more than a paltry $500,000 to get by in their day-to-day routine.

The indoor horseback rides to the office? Gone. Vacations to an actual Jurassic Park? No more. A new kind of toilet that isn't available to the public at large but is much more convenient and desirable? Pawned for mere Monopoly money.

I don't advocate the government being able to regulate how much money a company is able to afford its chairmen and women, but it can be understood that the government is just protecting its investment. I can't say that this is the wrong thing to do, despite my limited governance tendencies.

But it does speak, a little anyway, to the entire concept of this billion dollar buy-out thing. The logic seems to follow as this:

1. Companies have been greedy and incompetent.
2. These companies are now going down the toilet, and taking innocent Americans' well-beings with them.
3. The omni-benevolent government sees fit to aid these companies for the sake of the American well-being.
4. The government proposes giving these obviously incompetently led corporation gobs of money to pull themselves out of the gutter, without stipulating a change in leadership or at least waiting a decent stretch of time to get a second draft of a plan.
5. The government gets mad when the companies in question spends their bailout funds on the roulette wheel and craps tables, and Lord knows what else in Sin City.

Oh yeah, Change has come to Washington. Way to go team.

That noise you heard was me slapping my forehead most fervently.