that the chances of something like this passing are pretty much moot given the huge influence of the very companies affected in the running of our government and that just maybe pronouncements like this are all about the psychological impact instead.

Sometimes people with the bully pulpit don't need to actually follow through with their threats. They merely have to lay out the possibilities and the potential consequences of overreach as a two by four to the head.

How in the world could that law, even if it passed by some miracle, be enforced anyway? Hiding income and resources has become commonplace these days. These large corporations would simply funnel the resources out of the country and those offshore holdings would then be used compensate the individuals.

My guess is this is political posturing right now because your side has been playing games with the current legislation by doing bullying things such as voting in block on issues that have an incredible amount of gray area. You get what you dish out if you're going to play by those rules. It's a microcosm of the last few decades Tom. Your bunch decided that they'd rule with absolute power, that they'd completely silence the opposition, "create a permanent Republican majority". Your leaders taunted the rest of the world with our superiority and authority oblivious to the possible repercussions.

Forgive me if I don't get upset when the new leadership starts putting out the word that a continuation of this excess could cause a big time bitch slap. The new administration gave you guys the out to show some public atonement to the excess and you spit in their face. Look at the posts you're spouting out like you had some neo-con blogging assembly line. One after the other with your outrage at a time when we all should be coming together in the spirit of compromise. That word to you though has been a sign of weakness and an opportunity to go for the throat and then you wonder why the opposition would revert to an occasional headbutt in return.

To tell you the truth I'm very impressed the Democrats have been as conciliatory as they have been so far. They could easily have made the stimulus package 100% spending on infrastructure projects and started the negotiations from there but we all know that Washington doesn't work that way. The fact that they loaded it up with a ton of middle class tax cuts was clearly an olive branch and a way to get the public on board. The small percentage of spending fluff in there that really had nothing to do with job creation was clearly there as things they could throw out during the give and take. On hindsight, given the ability of your side to control the media message and use those things to outrage your base, it was probably a stupid move. However, compared to the overreach of your party in getting us here, it was really no more than an mosquito bite on a cancer patient.

Geitner and Frank know that their threat is an empty one but it's a veiled message to the power elite. Continue to play this game of blocking the action we truly need and the spotlight is going to become blinding.

Art