The last few weeks have provided so much political fodder it is hard to decide where to start.

Much has been written about the moral outrage of the AIG bonuses. There is not a sane soul in America that WANTS these bonuses to be paid. There is something outrageous about paying $175 million in bonuses to the employees of a failed, taxpayer owned corporation. The key word is nobody wants to pay these bonuses. The real question is should these bonuses be paid?

Unfortunately, if the AIG employees refuse to forfeit the bonus, they should be paid their ill-gotten bonuses. It is as simple as contract law. If a court finds they are valid contracts and by most accounts, they will, the bonuses must be paid. Contract law forms the bedrock of our free enterprise system. To undermine it would be to undermine our economic foundation and our Constitution. While I don’t like it, the preservation of contract law for all of us, now and in the future, is more important than recovering these bonuses.

While the thought of paying these bonuses is nauseating the political response to it is downright shameful. We may not respect these employees, but they are United States citizens. They have not even broken the law. In light of this, a United States senator has called for the executives to do the “honorable” thing and commit suicide rather than take the bonuses. If that was not bad enough, the House of Representatives has decided to manipulate the entire tax code to target these citizens.

Remember, this bill was drafted by the Democrats. Senator Dodd even put in a clause specifically allowing these bonuses. The 11,000 page document was drafted and voted on in mere days. There was no public review. In fact, most of Congress did not even read the bill. Where was the outrage then?

These bonuses are only a fraction of the recent earmarks just passed by Congress and signed by the President. Where was this moral outrage when Congress decided to spend billions on pork sponsored be the very same elected officials now gnashing and wailing about private contracts.

Unfortunately, this outrageous behavior is not isolated to Washington. To my dismay, my own state representative (and a select few of his cohorts) presumes to know what is best for all Georgians. Vance Smith, recently unveiled his transportation bill that is calling for a state-wide one cent sales tax to fund transportation. This would not be newsworthy except Mr. Smith is the powerful head of the Georgia House Transportation Committee. The bill calling for a referendum on the sales tax passed overwhelmingly in the House and may be on its way to become law.

We have serious transportation issues in Georgia. I can certainly vouch for them as I drive back and forth from LaGrange to Atlanta. The gridlock in Atlanta is unbearable. Something must be done. However there is a right way and a wrong way to secure this funding.

According to the The Atlanta Journal-Constitution, Mr. Smith’s added specific projects to his bill to sweeten the bill to make it more attractive to his house colleagues. What kinds of projects were added?

One is a $26 million widening of a two-lane country road in Greene County. This project has been listed on the state Transportation Department’s list of long-range projects. It runs past the main road of a luxury resort on Lake Oconee

The other project, which doesn’t have a price tag yet, is a new interchange with I-95 in Bryan County, south of Savannah. The state DOT recently called the project unnecessary - twice.

Some claim that both of these projects would benefit political contributors. On the other hand, both projects may be justified. However, because of the process, they lack the credibility of a properly vetted project.

No one knows how these projects made it on the list because the list was drawn up behind closed doors. According to the AJC no one involved will answer how these projects leapfrogged roughly 9,000 others to land in the legislation.

The AJC reported that Mr. Smith would say only that he drafted H.B. 277 in his office with eight to 10 other people. He declined to identify these people; beyond saying they were industry and government officials. He did not disclose the criteria for making the list, but he did say they wanted to include projects statewide so the bill to add a penny to the state sales tax might attract broad support.

These closed door deals are a way of the past. It is this kind of deal making that has ruined the Department of Transportation’s credibility. In Washington they would call these earmarks. In Georgia, we just call it wrong.