That’s a lot of quality health care for a lot of Americans right there. After all, most of the profits generate by Wall Street were from taxpayer money. There is a serious problem with priorities among the political class of America. They’re every bit as guilty as Wall Street. If this is the best they can do, it’s no wonder people are so tuned out of this sorry excuse for a system. Elections happen and parties change but somehow it’s always the same.

Employees at Wall Street financial firms collected more than $20 billion in bonuses in 2009, the year after taxpayers bailed out the financial sector amid the economic meltdown, New York state Comptroller Thomas DiNapoli said Tuesday. The payouts were about 17 percent higher than the previous year’s bonuses.

Total compensation at the largest securities firms grew beyond that figure and profits could surpass what he calls an unprecedented $55 billion last year, DiNapoli said. That’s nearly three times Wall Street’s record increase, a rate of growth that is boosted in part by the record losses in 2008 of nearly $43 billion, the Democrat said.

“Wall Street is vital to New York’s economy, and the dollars generated by the industry help the state’s bottom line,” said DiNapoli. “But for most Americans, these huge bonuses are a bitter pill and hard to comprehend. … Taxpayers bailed them out, and now they’re back making money while many New York families are still struggling to make ends meet.”