Let’s Party Like It’s 1930

The other night President Obama threw a party for congressional members and staffers that have been “working so hard” he felt that there needed to be some social time.  Said the prez:

We also know that we’re not always going to agree on everything, but given how hard so many of you are working on both sides of the aisle — day in, day out — we thought it was important for us to step back for a moment, remind ourselves that we have things in common — family, friends, laughter — and hopefully we’ll have a chance to appreciate each other a little bit, take a time-out before we dive back into the game.

What was on the menu? Well I’m sure there was plenty of top shelf booze.  Seems the prez likes to ply people with liquor.   But here was the menu:

Soup Course: Celery Soup

Appetizer: Wild Mushroom Crisps

Entree: Steelhead Salmon with Citrus sauce

Sides: Toasted Saffron Couscous Pearls, Crispy Spinach

Salad: Baby Iceburg Lettuce with Maytag Bleu Cheese and Yogurt Ranch Dressing

Dessert: Milk Chocolate Velvet Cake

So whaddya think?  How much would you pay for that at a five star restaurant in a major metropolitan area – $80 a plate including drinks?  Maybe a bit more.  Hell, I remember taking three clients to a French restaurant in Chicago and the bill with drinks and wine was almost $700 – and that was 15 years ago.  Unlike those at the White House on Wednesday the three clients I took to dinner helped me earn more than $700 per day for my company.  With big hitters like that it was the least we could do to say thanks.

Well, of course there’s no shortage of irony when talking about the bloviating wind-bag class.  Junior aids that were there make a minimum salary of $136,000/yr – and there’s lots of perks too.  Rank and File legislators make $176,000 (and somehow a lot of them end up rich.)  Speaker Nanny Granny Nan makes $223K and has her own private jet. And the D-bag Majority and Minority leaders in both houses make $193K.  Of course they don’t earn a friggin’ dime for their employers beyond that which they choose to tax.  It’s pretty generous but I’d double all of their salaries if they would promise not to show up for work.

Anyhow, here’s the irony I spotted before I digressed. Two days after this gentile soiree John Kerry penned a piece for Bloomberg that began:

Last week, when American taxpayers learned that a bank receiving Troubled Asset Relief Program funds had thrown a lavish bash and spared no expense to celebrate with the bands Chicago and Earth, Wind & Fire, I introduced legislation based on a simple concept: if a company accepts bailout funds from the taxpayer, it can’t waste money on lavish parties, expensive dinners and Tiffany trinkets.

And further on:

Not Party Time

Clearly, this is no time to party. Economic indicators are deeply troubling. Household debt-to-income levels are at historic highs, and estimates show that homes continue to be overvalued by as much as 30 percent. Many credit-card companies are facing insolvency. And commercial real-estate projects across the nation are quickly coming to their moment of crisis.

What does this have to do with lavish and frivolous spending by TARP recipients? Everything. If Americans continue to lose faith that their tax dollars are being used to rescue the economy, they’ll rebel — at a time when more painful investments and sacrifices must be made to avoid a deeper and deeper recession.

Let me say this about that.  First, the Treasury not only invited big banks to take tarp money they encouraged them.  The line was that it was important for even strong banks to participate in order to de-stigmatize borrowings by weaker institutions. The Northern Trust Company, which hosted the high-end golf event that had the bands that Kerry mentioned, is one of the strongest large “banks” in the country.  Northern Trust, however, doesn’t make its money primarily form banking activities.  It’s much more a trust company than a bank and manages money for many of America’s wealthiest families.  Now, since the money came with strings, Northern has to “apply” to return the funds, which they have done already, that they borrowed at the government’s urging.  And so far the Treasury is slow to say yes to any of the several banks that have balked at the retroactive impositions that pompous D-bags like Kerry wish to impose.

The clients that Northern lavished with gifts, lodging, and private jets make the company hundreds of millions of dollars a year.  And let me tell ya, when the economic stakes are that great the boot-licking is commensurate with the profits.  Money is fungible and if Northern isn’t kissing asses appropriately some other company like Swiss based UBS or French based Crédit Lyonnaiswill take those customers so Northern can’t pay its obligations.

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Yeah, times are tough and you’d think that you guys could get off your shit for long enough to realize that we’re not a bunch of chumps out here in the sticks and we’re sick-and-friggin’-tired of your pontifical bullshit about business while you do little but piss away money you’ve confiscated from people and business that actually produce something of value.

Now, we own 40% of Citi and 80% of AIG.  If you’re concerned about them pissing away money that’s fine, but most of us didn’t want you to prop up those businesses in the first place.  So figure out a way to liquidate them so you, and we, don’t have to worry about it anymore and are spared your pompous prattle.

Yeah, times are tough. But until you guys stop with the grossly expensive retreats to Kingsmill Resort for golf and lavish meals and President Obama starts hosting pot luck dinners for you leaches – instead of five star, five course meals – with menus that include things like shitty spaghetti hot dish, Budweiser, and wine in a box you should shut the fuck up.

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This entry was posted on Saturday, March 7th, 2009 at 7:40 pm and is filed under Economics, Politics, humor. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed.