When contacted by the Washington Post to explain the special $38 billion tax deal the government is giving Citigroup, officials at the Department of the Treasury offered this explanation:
Treasury officials said the government needed to grant the tax break in order to sell its shares in Citigroup because the company could not afford the loss. Officials also said that preserving the tax break would help the government sell its shares at a higher price.
If any other shareholder engaged in this kind of behavior, he’d probably be indicted. Rep. Dennis Kucinich, D-Ohio, is rightly planning hearings on this debacle in his subcommittee, but that doesn’t mean the proper lessons will be learned about government ownership of industry.
