Two Sets of Rules for Taxpayer Dollars

It was a hissy fit for the ages. How dare those automaker executives, in an attempt to secure billions of dollars from struggling taxpayers in a massive corporate bailout, have the nerve to travel to Washington DC. in private jets to address Congress?

Were they blind to the economy crumbling around them? Were they deaf to the cries of the taxpayers? Couldn't they smell the dank aroma of countless abandoned houses vacated by people uprooted by the tragic economy? That corporate bigwigs would shamefully travel from Detroit to DC in private jets while the taxpayers suffered was more than could be tolerated.

Congress was angry!

There was finger pointing, threatening, shouting and the gnashing of well worn teeth. Thankfully, the angry theater proved enough to get the attention of the dunderheads from Michigan because, when the benevolent overlords demanded the executives travel back to DC a second time, the executives proudly motored back to our gleaming capitol city in vehicles blessed by the overlords, each highway mile brightened by the immediate budding of flowers that needed nothing more than the gentle waft of a green car's wake to open.

It appears that while the grand theater did have an impact on the automobile executives, the grand theater thespians were doing little more than reading an interesting script having absorbed none of the message on their own.

WASHINGTON -- Congress plans to spend $550 million to buy eight jets, a substantial upgrade to the fleet used by federal officials at a time when lawmakers have criticized the use of corporate jets by companies receiving taxpayer funds.

The purchases will help accommodate growing travel demand by congressional officials. The planes augment a fleet of about two dozen passenger jets maintained by the Air Force for lawmakers, administration officials and military chiefs to fly on government trips in the U.S. and abroad.

Congress might very well recognize that when taxpayer money goes to corporations those corporations should insist in making certain the taxpayers' money is not wasted. Why elected officials hold themselves to different standards when it comes to those same dollars is a mystery.

Perhaps there is some hope after all.