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A Bad Taste

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THE SUNCOAST NEWS

Published: March 21, 2009

These days, March Madness has taken on a meaning not connected to the NCAA mens basketball tournament. This madness is an outbreak of phony baloney outrage resulting from the economic meltdown. The worst example of that faux indignation was this week's speedy passage by the U.S. House of a 90 percent tax on executive bonuses paid by banks and other financial services firms - like insurance giant AIG - that took bailout money from the federal government. We now know there were plenty of people in Washington who knew the AIG bonuses were going to be paid. In fact, Congress recently passed legislation protecting those bonuses. Oops.

Pasco School Superintendent Heather Fiorentino sent a letter to President Barack Obama asking the president to beat up on Wachovia. The bank has nearly tripled, from $367,000 to $950,000, the fee it charges the school district to handle a badly needed line of credit for the cash-strapped district. Wachovia and other financial companies that made dumb decisions and had to take money from Washington are doing what they can these days to raise capital. They are desperate to return the bailout money to the Treasury and get themselves out of this storm of moral indignation.

School Board Chairman Frank Parker called the big fee payment to Wachovia a "bitter pill." Right now, our economy is really sick. Unfortunately, an economic mess of this magnitude had to have been a collaborative effort involving people in and out of government. So the sooner we all take the yucky medicine the sooner we'll get on the road to recovery.

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