Today's Outrage: Who Cares What Citi Thinks?

It's an outrage that Senate Democrats felt the need to put such emphasis on Citigroup's (C Quote) support for a bill to help consumers facing foreclosure.

Since when do congressional leaders need Citi's -- or any other company's -- blessing on their legislation?

If Citi and the rest of the banking industry had any sense, then we wouldn't need new legislation.

Our financial institutions simply have no clout left when it comes to cleaning up the mortgage mess that they created. They blew their credibility when their toxic mortgage-related securities forced the U.S. taxpayer to pay for a massive bailout that went to just about every major U.S. financial institution -- from JPMorgan Chase (JPM Quote)to Bank of America (BAC Quote) to Goldman Sachs (GS Quote) -- and yes, Citi, too.

We tried it their way -- we gave self-regulation a chance. And look where it got us. It's hard to imagine a more dysfunctional marketplace than the credit system we have now.

Greed got in the way. Corporate leadership failed to keep it in check. So what makes us think those same corporate leaders need to be consulted now? If they had the solution, then we wouldn't need the trillion-dollar bailout and new regulation to address the fallout of their failures.

I hate that it's come to this. I hate that we couldn't trust our corporate leaders to regulate their industries without government interference.

No one likes micromanagement, but what choice is there when those who are given the chance to manage themselves fail to live up to that responsibility?