Taki Magazine

There have been many different takes on the controversy over the stimulus money going toward AIG bonuses, everything from the general public not understanding corporate payment structures, to politicians knowing full-well about the bonus payments and grandstanding after the fact. Much of this is true, but it misses the larger point. Many, if not most of the politicians who passed this legislation had no clue what was in it – they never know – and simply vote as partisans, void of principle, and go whichever way the ever-changing political winds take them.

If the American people were consistent, they would be outraged not just now, but everyday – as spending billions of dollars with little knowledge of where the money is going, passing legislation without even knowing what it is, or even knowingly wasting taxpayer money, isn’t something new or an aberration, specific to AIG – but business as usual on Capitol Hill.

How the controversy over the AIG bonuses imbedded in the stimulus obfuscate the root problem of spending in general.