Congress should choose its battles wisely

    It has been difficult to avoid the news about the American International Group (AIG) over the last week. It has made every political blog, every nightly newscast and every front page from the Eastern seaboard to the Pacific coast — and rightly so.
    The fact that AIG used $165 million of its bailout money to hand out bonuses to some trading units which, through their unrelenting greed, were responsible for the company's collapse to begin with is just despicable.  And Americans took note. They deserved to be up in arms as many of them have watched their bank accounts dwindle while the millionaires associated with AIG's handouts have sucked up even more wealth.
    Yet Congress should not be up in arms with them. While members of Congress represent their constituents, they are also supposed to act out of wisdom, and in this case, since the good of the country is in conflict with the general will of the people, legislators must balance these interests.
    Instead, Congress has spent the last week sorting out the AIG bonuses, which, in the scheme of things, is akin to haggling over pocket change — a fact that has done more harm to the country than good. The bonuses amount to $165 million — a huge sum when compared to most people's paychecks but a minimal amount when compared to the $787 billion appropriated for the financial recovery or the $700 billion designated for propping up the nation's financial institutions.
    Along with the Obama administration, Congress has to pull this country out of a historic economic turmoil — the kind of economic turmoil not seen since the Great Depression. It seems counterproductive, even irresponsible, for our nation's delegates to be so focused on an issue that, while troubling, will have little bearing on the country's financial problems. It's nice to see that Congress has been so receptive to the outrage felt on the part of the American people, but at this point, their responsiveness to AIG has done nothing to help banks begin lending again or to decrease the unemployment rate.
    In essence, over the past week, the country's leaders have been mired in the details. The AIG bonuses have come to represent the culture of excessive greed that has pervaded Wall Street over the last decade, and so Congress has attacked the company along with the rest of us. But spending a week muddling through the AIG case will not take back all of the abuses that have led to this economic crisis.
    And as our elected officials — the people Americans have chosen not only as their delegates but also as their trustees — legislators must see the big picture here if this country expects to pull itself out of this downturn with any haste.
    While the last week should be a lesson for any companies and executives hoping to perpetuate the culture of greed, it should also be a lesson to members of Congress and the role they should be playing in turning the American economy around.