" 'It was a company in which there was no accountability for failure,' the chairman of the House Oversight and Governmental Reform Committee, Henry A. Waxman, said in his opening statement.

"One Lehman document among thousands reviewed by the House committee showed that four days before the bank filed for bankruptcy protection, Lehman's compensation committee was asked to grant $20 million in "special payments" for three executives who were leaving, Mr. Waxman said. An e-mail exchange recommending a delay in bonus payments was apparently brushed aside.

"Another document showed that executives were warned in a January 2008 meeting that the company was facing liquidity problems. Yet the firm moved forward with capital outlays, including $5 billion in bonuses, $4 billion in shares and $750,000 in dividend payments between 2007 and the firm's bankruptcy filing on Sept. 15.

" 'Mr. Fuld takes no responsibility,; Mr. Waxman said of Lehman's chief executive, Richard S. Fuld Jr. 'Instead he cites a litany of destabilizing factors, that led to the company's collapse.'

" 'In other words, even as Mr. Fuld was pleading with Secretary Paulson for a federal rescue, Lehman continued to squander millions on executive compensation, ' Mr. Waxman said referring to Henry M. Paulson Jr., the Treasury secretary."

Just as Lehman continued to waste money on executive compensation while crying and whining for a government bailout, Congress took money from hardworking taxpayers to give to the perpetrators of this financial debacle by compensating them with almost $1 trillion for their fraud, committed with the help of the Bush regime.  Meanwhile, Bush's loyalist flunky, Hank Paulson, and his cronies, with the blessing of Congress, will distribute taxpayers' hardearned money to more of their ilk, financial system thieves like them.

Congress has already rewarded the Wall Street crooks with taxpayers' money; holding hearings is an act of hypocrisy, slapping American taxpayers in the face and adding insult to injury.