"They Still Don't Get It"

Last year the government bailed out the banks and Wall Street with TARP legislation. Since then the public outcry, led by our leaders in Washington, has come down on the executive compensation programs of these companies. The government went so far as to try to limit executive compensation. Now that many of these firms have paid back the money they are no longer subject to the government rules and are rewarding their employees as they see fit.

President Obama invited the heads of major banks to Washington to strong arm them into changing their ways. The president wants these bankers to stop fighting tooth-and-nail against his regulatory reform and to start loaning more money to small businesses so they can start hiring new employees so that Americans will go back to work and the economy will start growing again. On the eve of this meeting the President claimed that these "fat cat bankers" "just don't get it."

Well Mr. President, YOU just don't get it!

The President's hypocrisy extends to many levels with this statement. First, much of our financial crisis what at the direction of the government with their involvement into the workings of the banking industry. Forcing banks to make loans to ones who did not meet the qualifications of the lending institutions led to much of the foreclosures that helped snowball into the economic crisis. Now he wants to "encourage" the banks to start making more loans they are not comfortable with but to small businesses this time. The government just needs to stay out of the private sector.

The reasons the jobs have not come back to the American workforce has less to do with bank loans than it does the uncertainty of the future. While the President wants the small businesses of America to start hiring again he, at the same time, is working on legislation to drive the costs to operate a business in America including working to increase the tax on the payroll he is hoping to expand. The health care legislation Obama and the dems are working to pass in congress will cost every employer more taxes. In addition, the cap and trade the dems are so passionate about due to the "threat of Global Warming" (another subject) will also be on the backs of the American employer.

So why his words are encouraging the small business owner in America to start hiring again, everything his actions are doing is counterproductive to that goal.

Another way the President feels these banks "just don't get it" is their use of large bonuses to compensate their employees. While we are in a tough economic period, these banks have gone back to their practice of lofty bonuses. He compared their performance to that of a professional athlete after a bad season. While he is criticizing Wall Street for paying their employees too much, the government employees have seen sizable pay increases in a period where he has run the largest deficit in American history. So while every other business in America does all the can to reduce expenses during tough economic times, the President thought it is a great time to increase payroll.

As my papa always said, spend it like its your own money. The people in the government know its not their money. Its our money! Actually, they ran out of our money a long time ago and are spending our kid's money, and our grand kid's money and maybe even our great grand kid's money. In my opinion, it is unconscionable how this administration uses our money to take care of their own.