Exposing Tea Party frauds

Liberal populists in the Congress should join the Tea Party Caucus and propose that it sponsor an amendment to enact a tax on 2008 and 2009 bonuses for executives at bailed-out banks and Wall Street firms, and use the revenue to pay down the deficit and national debt.

Let’s see if Tea Party aficionados such as Rep. Michele Bachmann (R-Minn.) join progressive populists in the anti-bailout bonus amendment.

Those on the right who oppose this amendment would be exposed as socialists for the wealthy, enemies of American capitalism, supporters of the budget deficit and believers in the worst aspects of the bailouts.

Tea Party supporters of huge bonuses for executives at bailed-out banks believe that American finance should be run on the communist model of the Cold War era, where one group of insiders rewards another with lavish benefits that reward corruption and failure.

True progressive populists, and true conservative populists, believe that American finance should be run on the capitalist model of risk and reward, where success is rewarded with earned benefits while failure is punished with lower compensation and no bonuses.

It was the scandal from bailed-out banks that created the punishing recession, the sky-high unemployment and the deficits that plague us today.

True populists and capitalists such as myself believe those who caused this calamity should never be given bonuses, which are alien to American notions of capitalism.

Socialists such as certain Tea Party leaders have contempt for the principles of capitalism and believe failure should be rewarded in a system that is far more like insider communist-state enterprises that reward failure, as the huge bonuses for the bailed-out bankers have done.

And let’s have full disclosure of the sources of funding for Tea Party groups, to determine how much funding they receive from sources fronting for those who would corrupt American capitalism, not respect it.

Liberal members of the Congress should join the Tea Party Caucus and put this matter to a vote. Let’s expose the frauds who talk of tea in the Boston Harbor but vote to reward failure and corruption, which is not capitalism, and not the American way.