Taxpayer Bailout: Failed Bank Execs, Conan…What's the Difference?

Imagine there was a bank — you know, one of those evil fat cat banks the Obama Administration loves to hold up as Economic Bogeyman — that had taken a large piece of financial backing from The Federal Government. Now imagine there was a guy working at that bank for 17 years who was a rising star in the financial world and who landed a big promotion after the bailout of this bank. Then suddenly this rising star isn’t performing so well. The profits in his division are down. He has a contract, but because times are tough and the guy’s falling performance the bank gives him the ax.

So the guy makes a big stink and demands that if he is going to be replaced the bank has to buy out his contract.

The bank offers him 30 million dollars to take a hike.

“That isn’t good enough,” the guy says. Not only does he want his money but since he is being let go a lot of his staff will also lose their jobs. So he demands another 12 million so they all enjoy a soft landing.

The bank says “ok” and pays out the money.

How do you think the Obama Administration would have reacted? What do you think the coverage of this event would have been in the mainstream media? I think there would have been all sorts of outrage in the press and on TV. I also think every leftie from President Obama to Nancy Pelosi to David Axelrod would be screaming about getting our money back from these thieves.

So why is nobody screaming about the huge failure-bonus being paid with our money to Conan O’Brien? Because that is exactly what the money NBC paid to O’Brien is; a huge golden parachute for failing on The Tonight Show. More importantly, it’s money from the people of the United States. I wish I had a blackboard so I could go a little Glenn Beck on you, but follow me for a minute.

NBC, National Barack Communications, and its other so-called news outlets like MSNBC, are a part of General Electric. General Electric is run by Obama loyalist and advisor Jeffrey Immelt, who until recently allowed GE to continue to do business with Iran through middlemen, as documented by Bill O’Reilly. General Electric, as part of the economic bailout, received billions in loan guarantees for its GE Capital division. So why no Obama outrage over a company that took our money and paid out huge dough to an under-performer? Why no Tim Geithner or Larry Summers demanding that salaries at GE and its subsidiaries be kept to $500,000?

Imagine if Conan had a real job, perhaps at a bank or one of those evil health insurance companies the current administration loves to demonize, and he dropped the business by half when he took over. Would the President and his friends be alright with him walking away with a huge payout? Why is it cool to honor Mr. O’Brien’s contract but not the contracts of hundreds of bankers and other Wall Street employees who at one time actually made money for their employers?

My theory is that like AIG and GM, Conan was too big to fail!

Side Note: Why is it that Mr. Obama wants to make sure there are no banks that are too big to fail but doesn’t feel the same about car companies? Could it be that car companies have union employees whose bosses funnel hundreds of millions from their members’ dues to the Democrat Party?