Bring on the Pain!

I am becoming more and more disappointed with the apparent inability of congress and this administration to make tough decisions and bring on the pain. It almost feels like I am sitting in the doctor's office and he is going on and on about all the different things he can do to ease my symptoms because he is too scared of telling me that it will take a dramatic surgery to cure whatever I have.

We know things are bad, and we know we have to sacrifice and be in even more pain before things get better, but if we never get started with the surgery, then the real healing will take that much longer.

Maureen Dowd has a great article specifically dealing with Geithner's cuddly plan to deal with the financial sector. It is obvious that he is trying to avoid surgery. Here is an excerpt:

"Geithner is wrong. The pay of all the employees in bailed-out banks, not just top executives, should be capped. And these impervious, imperial suits who squander taxpayers’ money after dragging the country over the cliff should all be fired — preferably when they come to D.C. on Wednesday in a phony show of populism on Amtrak and the shuttle to testify before Barney Frank."

"Wall Street cannot be trusted to change its culture. Just look at the full-page ads that Bank of America (which got $45 billion) and Citigroup (which got $50 billion) are plastering in newspapers, lavishing taxpayer money on preening prose."

"We don’t want our money spent, as Citigroup did, to pat itself on the back “as we navigate the complexities together.” Bank of America cannot get back our trust by spending more of our cash to assure us that it’s “getting to work” on getting back our trust."

"Just get back to work and start repaying us."