Who's under fire now...

By Michelle Koyanagi

Seeing that this is our last blog assignment and reading some of the blogs already posted, I just want apologize if this will be a rather boring blog to read.
For this week, I looked at blogs about one of the most current topics being discussed on Capitol Hill: the controversy over AIG’s bonuses. Like the rest of America, I too am perplexed, angry, and ashamed of AIG (and other financial groups because AIG can’t be the only one) and certain government officials (Senator Chris Dodd, Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, etc.). I’m sure President Obama is extremely frustrated about this also.

Bloggers have commented on how controversies like this show us just how quick Congress can move when they are scared of their constituents turning on them. As an intern for my Congresswoman, I know just how angry some people can get when they call in to the office and voice their opinions about this messy situation.
However, there was one particular caller I got this week who not only voiced his complaints about AIG, but also voiced complaints about many other financial groups and people who he felt should also get put under fire, but at the moment, they were not.

This made me wonder… with all this talk of scandals, our government officials and big companies who were found to owe back taxes—how much more troubling would it be if the public found out that this sort of stuff was going on for decades, but we just never heard about it? I mean, surely there are many other politicians, companies who have hidden skeletons in their closet. How much more disturbing would it be to find out exactly how often crimes like these go on and how many people get away with it.