Bailout gone awry

I was incensed to learn that Wall Street employees were paid out $18.4 billion in bonuses last year. Why in THE hell are the taxpayers funding bonuses to Wall Street bankers?! Average people are being laid off with no job prospects and executives are getting extra $$ for running their businesses into the ground and losing money for their customers.
The New York comptroller stated that it is unclear whether taxpayer money was used for the bonuses, but the paper trail is irrelevant; companies that got bailout money from the U.S. Government because they claimed to be on the verge of collapse gave their executives reward money on top of their grossly overinflated salaries. They should be reprimanded, not rewarded.

The only conceivable reason I can think of for the bonuses is to keep around executives who fully understand how we got into this mess, so they can dig us out. I'm sorry, but that's like beating a dead horse with the poisonous snake that bit him.

The concept of a bonus is to reward a person for doing his or her job well. Guess what, ya didn't do your job well. I hope Pres Obama & Sec Geithner send some heads rolling because it is unacceptable that these people are getting extra while the rest of us get bent over a barrel for their mistakes. I say take the money back. Fine these companies and let them sink or swim on their own.