New York City's Public Celebration of the Culture of Corruption

A photo running on today's Associated Press wire shows Sen. Hillary Rodham Clinton (D-NY) laughing it up with Goldman Sachs' CEO and the celebration of the groundbreaking of the company's new New York City headquarters. I wonder if they are laughing about how much New York's politicians sold out New York taxpayers by giving away hundreds of millions of dollars to the company, which is one of the wealthiest in the world?

Here's what I'm talking about: Goldman Sachs managed to use its well-oiled political machine to actually get New York officials to hand over hundreds of millions of dollars in corporate welfare for the company - one of the richest in the world - to build its new headquarters. This, at a time when the federal, New York state, and New York city governments face massive budget deficits.

The Downtown Express, a weekly Manhattan paper, has the specifics of the taxpayer giveaways - giveaways that are coming as these same political leaders are cutting essential government services:

"City and state officials are close to sealing a deal with Goldman Sachs offering the investment bank more than $1.75 billion in incentives to build their new headquarters across from the World Trade Center. The offer — paid for with public funds — includes no additional amenities for a residential community that will have little access to the 740-foot tower...The new agreement comes after months of negotiations and includes $1.65 billion in triple tax-free Liberty Bonds — $650 million more than the offer made last September — and about $150 million in new city and state tax credits. In all, Goldman Sachs will probably save $100 million in interest costs over 30 years from the Liberty Bonds, according to the Independent Budget Office, a nonpartisan group."

Remember, these are giveaways to a company that, according to New York magazine, is so flush with cash that it is preparing to give each of its employees a $500,000 bonus for Christmas. In short, if you are looking for cold, hard proof of how the "culture of corruption" ravaging America's political system, this Goldman Sachs deal is it. Let's hope in the case it is hearing about corporate welfare, the Supreme Court finally bars this kind of "feed at the taxpayer trough" behavior - because its clear America's politicians aren't up to the task of stopping it.

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