Bob-

Not to dredge back into aincient history, but what do you call the S&L bailout? If I recall correctly, a bunch of rich folks running S&Ls loaned money to their rich friends that they knew those rich friends would never be able to repay. Then when the rich friends defaulted the government stepped in and bailed out the rich people who had made the bad loans. In fact, I believe a certain member of the Bush family was instrumental in doing that.

More recent history -- Dick Cheyney allows a subsidiary of a company he once ran to waltz into a government contract to rebuild oil fields in Iraq. Heck, we may even have started the darn war just so he those contracts would be necessary.

And what about all of the pork that goes into nearly every bill that passes Congress: unnecessary defense contracts, or farm subsidies. Isn't that just welfare for the middle class?