Obama has spoken out against the Merrill office remodeling, taken away Citigroup's new corporate jet and now condemned the 2008 Wall Street bonuses but what's really at stake makes these expenses insignificant.
Plans are leaking from his treasury to saddle taxpayers with the huge current and future losses from ill-advised bank lending.
Check out the numbers:
Merrill office remodel 1 million
Citigroup Jet 50 million
2008 Bonuses 18000 million
Taxpayer Bank Bailout 2000000 million
Indignation about banking excess is great but don't let it distract you from bankers' fat hand reaching for $2 trillion in taxpayers' back pocket.
Obama is up against overwhelming lobbying and insider pressure to cut a sweet deal for the banks. But he doesn't have to, there are ways to restructure the banks which minimize taxpayer costs.
Obama and Congress need to hear from all of us to ensure that we don't give away the federal treasury to salvage our dysfunctional and parasitic banks.