HERE, RUDY, LET ME EXPLAIN

So Rudy Giuliani thinks it's wrong to complain about big bonuses paid to incompetent Wall Streeters because those bonuses create tax revenue for New York? Rudy, here's the problem: If a firm paying a bonus got money from TARP, that money is tax revenue. It came from the U.S. taxpayer. You think it should go to New York? Well, fine -- aid to struggling states and cities is good. But why does it first have to pass through the hands of the same greedy screw-ups who got us into this mess?

Oh, right:

"... it's because that money gets spent. That money goes directly into the economy...."

Fine -- so give it directly to the have-nots, not the haves. Oh, sure, maybe they won't spend it the same way -- they'll spend more money on children clothing at Queens discount stores and less money at titty bars in Manhattan. But they'll spend it. Or give it as direct aid to New York City (or aid for job-producing city infrastructure projects) so the current mayor doesn't can avoid some of the 23,000 layoffs he's planning as well as

-Increasing the sales tax by one quarter of one percent from 8.375 percent to 8.625 percent
-Repealing the sales tax exemption on clothing purchases under $110

Find a way to put a bit more money in the pockets of the very people who'd really be hurt by those changes. Then let it trickle up for a change.