David Sirota takes Obama to the Wall Street woodshed

Calling Obama’s threat, even before becoming president, to veto any Congressional attempt to restrict the second $350 billion of TARP bailout funds a “nuclear warhead … particularly big,” Sirota definitely doesn’t like it:

Amid paeans to “new politics,” we’re watching old-school paybacks from a politician who raised more Wall Street dough than any other – a president-to-be whose inauguration festivities are being underwritten by the very bankers who are benefiting from the bailout largesse. Safely distanced from electoral pressure, Obama has appointed conservative economists to top White House positions; floated a tax cut for banks; and is now trying to preserve corporate welfare that almost exclusively benefits the political donor class.

Sirota goes on, quoting the New York Times saying “the Treasury says there is no urgent need” for the additional money, to wonder just how in thrall to Wall Street Obama is.

Read the full column to see just how pissed off Sirota is.

Meanwhile, let’s look at a few reasons Congress should get some gonads:
• Bank of America, Citigroup and Morgan Stanley are among bailout aid recipients with offshore tax havens;
• If banks really need to be nationalized (contra the Treasury claim), it absolutely shouldn’t happen without Congressional involvement.