Just yesterday, the White House was denying it was in talks with Citibank to bail it out. This morning, of course, we hear that Citibank is receiving $20 billion in taxpayer money -- that's on top of the $25 billion it received only last month. As a bonus, U.S. taxpayers -- of which I am one, of course -- are now on the hook for $250 billion in Citibank losses.
This is more than enough to make me furious, and to wonder whether I shouldn't just stop paying my taxes altogether -- why the hell should I be rewarding Citibank executives who fucked their company up so badly that it required a federal bailout of such magnitude?
But it gets worse. Today in the mail I get this letter from Citibank:
Not only am I expected, as taxpayer, to clean up after Citibank's messes and yet reward the people who made it, I am now being punished, as a Citibank customer, with higher rates and higher fees on everything!
I have one Visa card with Citibank. My savings and checking accounts are with Citibank. I've been a loyal Citibank customer for more than 20 years. That one Visa card? I've never missed a payment, and never been late with a payment. (I've never missed a payment or been late with a payment on any money I have ever owed to anyone. Not ever.) For the first decade or so that I owned the card, I used it regularly and often carried a balance. For the last decade or so, I've been steadily carrying a balance -- it's the last card left with a balance from my own personal financial near-meltdown I wrote about two months ago. The interest rate on that balance is low and will remain low until the balance is paid off, and I'm no longer making purchases with the card, but still: Citibank has made a small fortune off of me already in precisely the kind of way they want: I always carry a balance but I always pay on time.
In other words, I am the perfect credit card customer, as the credit card issuers tally it. My credit rating is over 800, and has been for at least several years.
And Citibank thinks I should pay for its poor management decisions.
Well, I'm not going to, because I'm opting out of this obscenity, but still: this is the disdain Citibank has for its customers. And why not? Look at the disdain the federal government has for its citizens. Our leaders believe that investors in a sinking company should be rescued while those of us who had absolutely nothing to do with that company's disastrous performance take a hit.
Someone please remind me again why I should pay my federal taxes.
Oh, and Obama's incoming Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner was in on this scheme. The New York Times says:
Mr. Obama's choice for Treasury secretary, Timothy F. Geithner, the president of the Federal Reserve Bank of New York, played a crucial role in the negotiations on Friday but took a less active role once news of his appointment was circulated.
So much for transparency and Change. Anyone still think Obama is gonna be Our Savior?
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