2069 Oversight

If you think congress isn't working hard enough you might be surprised. There's a committee congressional folks are just dying to get on. It's the House Financial Services committee. 

I know, how boring is that? Debits and credits and assets and bookkeeping and stuff. You'd think it wouldn't be a plum assignment for lawyerly congressional types. All that math and figuring. Something much more suited to CPAs than Doctors of Jurisprudence.

Well think again, because when it comes to prudence, juris or otherwise, a healthy pocketbook is the way to get through life. And why go to all the trouble of getting elected if you can't take advantage of the perquisites of office? 

They say that the first job of every congressman is to get reelected. But the second job is surely to get on a good committee or two. The better to serve your constituents back home. Or if not back home at least your personal back-side. The one you use to sit, on not just committees, but your wallet. 

Because unlike most committees in congress, the House Financial Services committee is growing. Recently they had to install an extra row of seats in the committee room so it could fit all 61 members. 

Now that's dedication. 61 members to oversee the financial sector. The folks that brought us the great economic crater of 2008 with their unregulated investment derivatives. And, oh yeah, the subsequent great recession. 

No wonder it takes 61 members to regulate them. The committee, by the way, is affectionately known as "the cash committee." 

On an entirely unrelated note I'm sure, banks, financial institutions, insurers, and accounting firms have donated $10 million to the members of the committee so far in 2013. 

Go figure.

That money appears to have gone down some cashholes.

America, ya gotta love it.