Democrats are outraged that Wall Street firms gave $18 billion in bonuses last year. President Obama called it the height of irresponsibility. Christopher Dodd (who still won’t honor his promise to release his loan documents) has even vowed to confiscate those bonuses somehow. It’s ridiculous that an industry that did so badly, and required taxpayer money to stay afloat, would give itself bonuses amounting to about $100k per employee or so.
But another enterprise that did even worse last year is giving itself $93k more per member: the US Congress. Congress has voted to give itself a $93k increase in annual petty cash (that’s walking-around money members can spend in their districts to ensure perpetual incumbency). (Via LGF.) The coincidence in the two numbers is striking but illusory. The Congressional figure is just the increase; the total figure is in the millions.
