Americans trying to make ends meet in the worst economic times since the Great Depression were livid when told of multi-million dollar bonuses paid to top executives of Wall Street companies going belly-up and pleading for taxpayer bailouts at the same time.
But the measure Congress enacted-that put limits on lavish compensation for bailout executives was meaningless.
The White House snookered Congress by successfully convincing inattentive congressmen to insert a convoluted modification that effectively turned the pay regulation into a toothless law that would baffle a Philadelphia lawyer.
After looking at the new legislation, even the Securities and Exchange Commission threw up its hands ands said it probably could not legally ask corporations for information on executive compensation and therefore would be unable to take punitive action if necessary.
Rather than trust the essentially defunct Bush administration to police corporate pay packages for companies being propped up by taxpayers, Congress must go back and write legislation than can be enforced and will be enforced.
Congress has good reason to be distrusting. The current national economic crisis has its roots in the Bush White House's indifference to regulation of Wall Street financiers and their fast-money gambits. The SEC also admitted this week that its laxity allowed con man Bernard Madoff to swindle investors out of $50 billion.
Americans are in no mood to watch their president and Congress once again goof so badly that another loophole is created to allow fast-money operators to pad their riches with the help of public funds.
