Everybody is asking what happened to the $750 billion that was approved by Congress to aid in the bank bailout. Well, if you really want to know, you might want to sit down first because you may not believe where our tax dollars are going to.

So far, there are 116 banks that have received taxpayer dollars to assist them through the economic crisis gave their top tier of executives nearly $1.6 billion in salaries, bonuses and other benefits in 2007.

That amount, spread among the 600 highest paid bank executives, would cover the bailout money given to 53 of the banks that have shared the $188 billion that Washington has doled out in rescue packages so far.

Now you would think that these executives, the same guys that allowed the problem to occur would practice a little humility, right?

WRONG!

These greedy, self-centered motherf**kers were given multi-million-dollar packages including cash bonuses, stock options, personal use of company jets and chauffeurs, home security, country club memberships and professional money management.

Now, you must remember that these bonuses are not a reward for a job well done but a “bribe to get them to do the jobs for which they are well paid in the first place," said Rep. Barney Frank, the Massachusetts Democrat who chairs the House Financial Services committee.

"Most of us sign on to do jobs, and we do them best we can," said Frank. "We’re told that some of the most highly paid people in executive positions are different. They need extra money to be motivated!"

An AP review of annual reports that the banks file with the Securities and Exchange Commission found that the average paid to each of the banks’ top executives was $2.6 million in salary, bonuses and benefits.

Among other findings:

_ Lloyd Blankfein, president and chief executive of Goldman Sachs, took home nearly $54 million in compensation last year. The company’s top five executives received a total of $242 million.

This year, Goldman’s seven top-paid executives will work for their base salaries of $600,000, with no stock or cash bonuses, the company said. Last spring, before Wall Street’s staggering losses and layoffs mushroomed, Goldman described its pay plan as essential to retain and motivate executives "whose efforts and judgments are vital to our continued success, by setting their compensation at appropriate and competitive levels."

CONTINUED SUCCESS! And this coming from a company that reported its first quarterly loss since it went public in 1999. It received $10 billion in taxpayer money on Oct. 28.

NOTE: Henry Paulson, our Treasury Secretary who is the architect of this $750 bailout scheme is the former Chairman and Chief Executive of Goldman Sachs…..WHAT A COINCIDENCE!

ARE YOU GETTING THE PICTURE? WAIT, there’s more!

Richard D. Fairbank, the chairman of Capital One Financial Corp., took a $1 million pay cut after his company had a disappointing year, but still got $17 million in stock options while his company received $3.56 billion in bailout money.

John A. Thain, chief executive of Merrill Lynch, is a strong candidate for The Lang Report’s “Golden Fleece Award,” by earning $83 million last year. Here’s the breakdown: since he began work late in the year, he earned $57,692 in salary, a $15 million signing bonus and an additional $68 million in stock options while his company tapped taxpayers for $10 billion.

I have to tell you that this makes me want to stick my head out of my window and scream, I’m mad as hell and I’m not going to take it anymore!

What is going to take before Americans rise up and “storm the bastille” (so to speak) 

This is what prompted the French Revolution when people were starving in the street while the Aristocracy partied on and Marie Antoinette said, “FAMOUS PHRASE.” 

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