This starts with the fact that “Barclays and Deutsche Bank more than a dozen hedge funds avoid paying more than $6 billion in taxes.”

They can do that by reincorporate overseas, using a loophole to pay fewer taxes.  They call it “tax inversion,” because that sounds much nicer than tax evasion, which is what it really is.

“These banks and hedge funds used dubious structured financial products in a giant game of ‘let’s pretend,’ costing the Treasury billions and bypassing safeguards that protect the economy from excessive bank lending for stock speculation,” Sen. Carl Levin (D-Mich.), chairman of the subcommittee, said at a news conference Monday.

And this ends with Barclays using some of that tax inversion money they saved to invest in their Loophole Ace, Texas Republican Congressvarmit Jeb Hensarling, a man with an uncanny resemblance to Alfred E. Neuman.  Deutsche Bank also tossed money his way.  Jeb is the Chairman of the powerful House Financial Services Committee.

He represents area that starts in Dallas and then heads directly east.  It has half a million people in it with a median income of $42,000 a year.  So, I suspect that not a lot of those constituents have hedge funds.

Thanks to Alfredo over at the Dairy Queen for the heads up.