An environmental former vice president travels via private jet. A powerful Congressman is under investigation for ethics and tax violations. And a health-care-promoting president happens to smoke cigarettes. In Washington, it seems increasingly permissible to preach one set of rules while practicing another altogether.

That s especially true when the government controls the economy. Hypocrisy isn t just tolerated it s institutionalized.

For example, the president has repeatedly pushed for government-mandated say on pay rules that would give shareholders a direct vote on the compensation of various executives. In an interview with Bloomberg, he said it serves as a restraint and helps align performance with pay."

Not two weeks later, it was reported that Fritz Henderson, GM former government-appointed CEO, would be rehired by the company as a consultant at the rate of $2,955 an hour, a salary 41,000% higher than the federal minimum wage. In the last three years, his compensation from GM has exceeded $14 million.

Lest you think Henderson is the automotive Steve Jobs, it's worth noting he has been with the company since 1984, a period over which GM's market share has declined by more than half.

General Motors' U.S. Automobile Market Share During Fritz Henderson's Career

Source: Ward s Automotive

Current GM CEO Ed Whitacre was just awarded a pay package of stock and cash valued at $9 million. Other entities now owned by the government like Fannie Mae and AIG (AIG) have also announced multimillion-dollar pay packages for senior executives.

These firms have become America's version of Japan s Zombie Banks, fundamentally insolvent companies supported with public dollars and run for political ends.

For the public good," taxpayers are not only forced to prop up these economic black holes, but to furnish the well-connected insiders with generous paychecks.

We get no say on pay or on anything else.