The title is meant to refer to our elected officials in Washington, the Senators and Representatives who turned the ludicrously huge bailout bill into an orgy of self-aggrandizing expenditure. It isn’t really fair, though, that title. It is nothing more than a gratuitous insult to pigs.

One can argue for or against the bill, which just passed the House of Representatives, on its merits. One can question the wisdom of bailing out those guilty of serious fiscal indiscretion. One can argue that the market must have the opportunity to work itself out, that the consequences, even if they extend so far as to plunge the world into a massive depression, are not nearly as severe as substantially altering, with virtually no debate, the philosophical, moral, and structural assumptions under which our economic system functions. Or one can argue that the bill doesn’t go far enough, or goes too far in the wrong direction, that it is the poor beleaguered mortgage holder who is most in need of succor.

What is beyond dispute is the fact that a three-page bill has turned into a 400-page behemoth. What on earth does a provision requiring health insurance companies to give "equal quality" of treatment to the mentally ill have to do with acting to forestall a global stultification of the credit markets? All that particular clause will do is ensure the legal system will be clogged with a trainload of lawsuits for years to come. Then again, maybe that was the intent of that provision.

In the vice-presidential Debate, Sarah Palin made frequent references to her and John McCain’s goal of ridding Wall Street of greed and corruption. While getting rid of corruption is always a good plan, removing greed from Wall Street will pretty much eliminate Wall Street. Furthermore, it misses the point. Greed didn’t cause this crisis. Hubris did. Hubris always occurs at the end of a bubble. It leads to the sort of excesses which resulted in the subprime mortgage meltdown. The important point is that the greed that needs to be eliminated is not on Wall Street, it is in Washington.

Our elected officials are morbidly greedy. Greedy for power. Greedy for glory. Greedy for the perpetuation of the legislative priesthood from which they derive their dominance. Monetary greed is manageable. It is understandable. It is an entirely human characteristic. Greed for power is unconscionable. It is dangerous to individual rights and freedoms. It is the single defining quality of Congress today.

It is time to clean house. Our system of government today is cluttered with the trappings of action which serve only to obscure the lethargy which obstructs any meaningful reform and even the pretense that Senators and Representatives hold the public’s interests at heart. Occasionally, when some crisis appears, they will bestir themselves to act, and to act quickly. Inevitably, the action they take is ill-considered and hasty, and carries with it the seeds of further damage. Think Sarbanes-Oxley. Think the financial intervention bill passed today.

Aside from making the world safe for children’s bow and arrow manufacturers, the bill, among other things, provides for the Federal Government to take equity positions in American companies, and it allows the government to determine how much individuals can earn. This was done in the name of fairness, and it will be disastrous down the road. It is the thin end of the wedge which ultimately leads to socialism.

Larding this legislation with a witches’ cauldron of special interest giveaways is emblematic of the structural flaws of our legislative system of government. It is beyond tawdry. It is despicable, and it should lead the entire nation to take recourse in the time-honored cry of "Throw the bums out." The only way to reform Wall Street is to reform Washington first, and the only way to reform Washington is through the wholesale removal of every elected official there.

Every incumbent should be voted out, and every voter should pay close attention to the behavior of those who replace them. They should be given one term in which to return to serving the people. If they don’t, then they should be voted out, too. They should be voted out in the primaries, which would result in an election with no incumbents. This process should be repeated as often as necessary until the system is fixed.