A sorry bailout feeding frenzy

In the end, the politicians just couldn't help themselves.

If, as congressional leaders and the president want to convince Americans, the economy is truly on the brink of disaster, then the gluttonous rush to add $110 billion worth of tax breaks and pork-barrel spending onto a bailout bill that passed Friday was among the lowest, most arrogant and cynical maneuvers we've witnessed — the equivalent of throwing jewels and other treasures onto the lifeboats of the Titanic.

Just as those boats would have begun sinking under the weight, U.S. taxpayers are left to ponder how a bailout that already was going to burden them with an unprecedented level of sudden debt will now add that much more. And, unlike the $700 billion in bailout money designed to buy up bad assets and loosen a credit crisis, taxpayers have no chance of ever recouping the cost of those extra perks.

And what were the goodies added onto the bill? The usual garbage Americans have come to expect from Congress: $2 million here for an Oregon-based manufacturer of wooden arrows, $100 million there for racetrack owners, and $192 million for rum producers in Puerto Rico and the Virgin Islands.

How arrogant and cynical was this? The New York Times quoted the biggest winner in the bailout sweepstakes, Rep. John Murtha, D-Pa., as saying the $111 million he got for things in his district was but a fraction of "what the administration wants to bail out those rich guys in New York."

We understand how politics works. On the one hand, there was the need to change the votes of several representatives who helped defeat the initial bailout bill earlier in the week. A little extra money can be quite persuasive. On the other hand, there was the apparently irresistible temptation to attach items that otherwise would fail in a stand-alone onto a bill considered so important it has to pass.

But neither reason is going to warrant a new chapter in "Profiles in Courage."

Sure, some of the extra money was to continue tax breaks already in existence, but those matter ought to be debated and considered separately, on their merits.

Experts continue to debate whether the bailout truly was needed. News on Friday that a prominent investment fund for colleges and private schools had frozen withdrawals, combined with reports on job losses nationwide and declining factory orders seemed to show that the crisis was beginning to hit average Americans.

If so, the bailout may or may not stem the downward trend. It has, however, almost certainly sped the downward trend of public opinion toward Congress.