Wounded warriors or Wall Street bonuses?

Sen. Jim Webb (D-Va.) wants to offer an amendment to the financial bill that would establish a surtax on Wall Street bonuses in 2009 for bailed-out banks. Webb would establish a 50 percent excise tax on bonus money above $400,000 for firms that took more than $5 billion of bailout money. Those who oppose the Webb amendment support unlimited bonuses for executives at Wall Street firms that took taxpayer money to pay for their blunders and can fairly be called the leading champions of bailout abuse.

The powers-that-be should make certain that the Senate votes on this amendment. Senators should support it. Constituents should contact their senators to urge support.

If the Webb amendment passes, it would raise more than $3 billion for the Treasury, and I now propose that this money be used where it should have been used long ago, to support far upgraded care for the wounded warriors who serve our nation. Stories continue about the high number of military suicides, problems of post-traumatic stress, growing numbers of homeless vets and continuing problems in certain military treatment centers.

If anything I would go further than Webb and claw back a portion of the bonuses from 2005, 2006, 2007 and 2008. The fortunes that were made in those years, based on the hype and speculation and frauds that caused the great crash of our times, were not earned income. They are not capitalism. They are not free enterprise. They are corporate socialism championed by those who want the profits of success for themselves and the consequences of their failure paid for by taxpayers.

These bonuses that Webb targets are the fruit of poisonous profits that caused the crash, led to the bailouts and created the jobless crises that in real terms impose pain today on almost one-fifth of the nation.

During the darkest days of the Iraq war, when our troops suffered preventable deaths and wounds because Washington would not, or could not, provide the body armor and Humvees that would have saved the lives and limbs of our troops, those limousines were carrying those gleeful Masters of the Universe back to those luxurious mansions in Connecticut subsidized by those ill-begotten profits, salaries and bonuses.

Life is about choices. Government is about choices. And honor imposes choices. I argued vehemently and often and usually to no avail in those days that America had a moral duty to stand behind the troops and get them that body armor and those Humvees. I even proposed a Patriot Bond that would have given every American an opportunity to join the cause of standing with the troops, as so many do, and so many more would do, if given the chance.

But Washington made the wrong choices. The road that was taken was to fund a war through tax cuts for the wealthy. And to continue the speculations that brought the American economy to its knees. And to not provide for far too long the things that would have prevented the deaths and wounds of many of the heroes who serve the nation with such honor and courage, while others milked the system for unearned wealth in our modern Gilded Age.

Every senator must have the opportunity to vote on the amendment by Sen. Webb, and every senator should vote yes. It is the least we can do, and the one thing we must do, to redress the wrongs that have so harmed our nation, and to redress the shameful imbalance between those who so courageously gave all for our country, and those who so shamelessly grabbed every penny for themselves.

Enacting the Webb amendment is the right and honorable and noble thing to do in a nation where there is such outrage against these bonuses that were so shameful, and where there are so many unmet needs, starting with the best care for the wounded warriors who serve us all, including those Masters of the Universe who should now be asked what they can do for our country.

The Webb amendment is one of those cases of right and wrong that will define who we are and what we stand for.

There are lobbyists today working the backrooms of Congress trying to prevent the Webb amendment from coming to a vote. They are giving the Congress the counsel of cowardice, in the service of greed, offering inducements of money, through donations to campaigns, which embodies everything that would corrupt our republic and creates the outrage toward both parties today.

The Webb amendment should be passed, and those who oppose it should be ashamed, even by standards of this town, which far too often has no shame.