Executives of one company bailed out with taxpayer dollars went on a wonderful spa retreat to get away from the stress of running their companies into the ground.  Several firms on Wall Street are still planning on paying over $6 billion each in bonuses to the knuckleheads who put us in this economic maelstrom.

Word today is that the banks who are on the receiving end of $163 billion taxpayer dollars will be paying out more than half of that as dividends to bank stockholders over the next three years.  Not only that, the banks are attemting to defend that intention and those payouts.

Cheeky just got a new definition in today’s dictionary, it seems.  Spa retreats, bonuses and dividends, and we’re paying for them.  Lest you forget, those tax dollars did, in fact, come from us.

Gas prices have come down, that’s a fact.  But without jobs to drive to, it makes little difference in our lives.  Winter’s coming, and home heating fuel isn’t going down in price.  In the northeast, we’re expecting to pay more than $1000 over last year’s heating costs.  Groceries still cost more, too.

With less in our wallets and purses today, the prospect of losing our job, and news reports that this is with us to stay for a while to come, middle America already feels pretty low.  Loans are hard to find, whether for a home, a car or our kid’s college education.  Perhaps one of the few mildly brighter spots in this is that the number of credit card solicitation offers are far fewer in the mail these days.

Feeling worried and low is one thing.  Feeling used is an altogether different thing, and learning how our tax dollars are being given to and enjoyed so much by so many folks other than those who really need the dollars the most is an outrageous insult.  How could Congress and Mr. Happy do this to us?  How could they fritter away our tax dollars, in part, to those who contributed to the conditions we’re facing?  Why should those who brought about this mess profit by it now at our expense?

It’s a wonder how any of those people can look themselves in the mirror each morning, or read the news of so many who are suffering today, losing their jobs today, going to bed hungry or sleeping in their cars tonight,  without feeling some guilt.  An honorable person would refuse the spa retreat, the bonus or the divident.  Then again, an honorable person would not have put us in this mess in the first place.

Shame on them.