THROWING A LIFE PRESERVER TO FOLKS WHO ARE COMFORTABLY SEATED ONSHORE, SIPPING DRINKS

This is just outrageous:

ON Nov. 6, President Obama signed the Worker, Homeownership and Business Assistance Act of 2009 into law, extending unemployment benefits by 20 weeks and renewing the first-time homebuyer tax credit until next April.

But tucked inside the law was another prize: a tax break that lets big companies offset losses incurred in 2008 and 2009 against profits booked as far back as 2004....

Among the biggest beneficiaries are home builders, analysts say....

This is getting to be a habit: companies that participated on the upside and are now reaping rewards from the taxpayers on the downside....

This isn't even a case of helping fat cats who are hurting rather than helping ordinary schmucks who are hurting, because these fat cats aren't even hurting:

Pulte Homes, which will receive refunds exceeding $450 million under the new law, has $1.5 billion in cash and cash equivalents on its balance sheet, according to its most recent financial statement.

Hovnanian Enterprises is another big beneficiary of the tax break. It anticipates a refund of $250 million to $275 million next year. It had $550 million in cash in its most recent quarter....

Some of the home builders poised to receive tax refunds have even more cash today than they did last year. D. R. Horton, for example, has $1.966 billion in cash, up 45 percent from September 2008 levels....

Ah, but there's some trickle-down ... right?

Ken Campbell, the chief executive of Standard Pacific, said the money would allow his company to continue buying land. "Will we build more houses or will there be more people employed in the first quarter? Probably not," he said....

Caryn Klebba, a spokeswoman for Pulte Homes, said in a statement that the company planned to use the funds it receives "to support its current operations and, when market conditions improve, fund future growth and expansion."

In other words, job creation does not seem imminent, notwithstanding the claims of the administration or those in Congress who supported the giveaway....

I've basically stopped hoping for anything better than this from the Obama administration and Democrats in Congress.

But hey, you know who should be upset, if what I read in the press is accurate? How about some of these Republicans who claim to be populists and foes of the vested interests?

Hey, Tim Pawlenty, you're supposed to be the "Sam's Club Republican" -- as in "We need to be the party of Sam's Club, not just the country club." So? If you really believe that, and you have your eyes on 2012, how about a little outrage right now? Or could it possibly be that you're not really offended by this?

And Sarah Palin, what about you? Aren't you and your media coat-holders still claiming that you're the sworn enemy of the kinds of fat-cat lobbyists whose money got this provision into the bill? That you're a big corruption-fighter? Gosh, if your silence on this kind of thing continues, I'll be reluctantly forced to conclude that all that talk was just hot air....

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ALSO: What about this, alleged GOP coruption-haters?

In the official record of the historic House debate on overhauling health care, the speeches of many lawmakers echo with similarities. Often, that was no accident.

Statements by more than a dozen lawmakers were ghostwritten, in whole or in part, by Washington lobbyists working for Genentech, one of the world’s largest biotechnology companies....

Genentech, a subsidiary of the Swiss drug giant Roche, estimates that 42 House members picked up some of its talking points -- 22 Republicans and 20 Democrats, an unusual bipartisan coup for lobbyists....

We know she enjoys targeting Democrats now, but I'm assured by Matthew Continetti that Sarah Palin, that great scourge of the corrupt, loved to take on Republicans in Alaska. So? Your thoughts on this bipartisan sellout, Sarah?