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Mercnbeth -> RE: Obama Criticizes ‘Fat-Cat Bankers' (12/14/2009 4:55:53 PM)
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~ Fast Hypocrisy Disclosure ~
Meanwhile, outside the front door of the White House and under the direct control of Congress, some "Fat-Cats" weren't a concern of the President. In Washington DC receiving bonuses with taxpayer money is the norm, and above Congressional or Presidential scrutiny.
The economy has been in the dumps for years, but the good times keep on rolling for some favored D.C. employees.City officials have doled out nearly $15 million in bonuses and awards since Mayor Adrian Fenty took office in January 2007, records obtained by The Examiner under the Freedom of Information Act show.
Among the big winners were Schools Chancellor Michelle Rhee, who was handed $41,250 in August 2007 after barely two months on the job; Department of Health Director Pierre Vigilance, who was given $15,000 in 2008; and city property manager Robin-Eve Jasper, handed $18,000 over two years.
The bonuses were ladled out even as the city was facing nine-figure budget shortfalls and officials -- including Rhee -- were firing employees by the bus load, claiming they could no longer afford them.
Then-special education "czar" Phyllis Harris was paid $17,000 in 2008; special-ed bureaucrat Karen Griffin was given $25,000 the same year; and Rhee's chief of staff, Lisa Ruda, was given $17,000 in 2008, records show.
Yeah, but look at these marvelous results!
"We've made tremendous progress in these three years," he said.
Fourth-graders' test result are now only the fourth-worst in the nation; eighth-graders' are only the second-worst.
One thing that has a direct correlation to the Bankers; although their contracts didn't call for bonuses resulting from total failure to 2nd and 4th worst improvement. They did however, have this in common as I mentioned when all the rhetoric was being vented when last years bonuses were paid to the Banking failures, under Bush I Stimulus and Bush II (Obama) Stimulus: Attorney General Peter Nickles said most of the bonuses to employees were tied to contracts that were entered into when "times were better" and that the city couldn't back out of them now.
The solution is also exactly the same. Chapter XI restructure - throw out the employee contracts, executive and union, and negotiate them in today's reality. Or continue down the current path, print money, and have our grandkids kids pay the interest on the deficit created. Too many are on the public dole, not as entitlement recipients as the dictionary defines it, but as employees who consider themselves entitled to the pay, benefits, and their perks while the company they work for, the government, is in bankruptcy.
Reality needs to be disclosed to affect the appropriate change. It's shouldn't be so difficult to achieve; but for the expectation that 'Uncle Sam' is now perceived as a 'Mom & Dad Sam' instead of being, as it should be, a benevolent 'uncle'.
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