Former Treasury Secretary (and Goldman Sachs CEO) Henry Paulson testified before Congress yesterday. Paulson was attempting to explain his role in the massive bank bailouts that the taxpayers footed last year to the tune of billions of dollars. In between naps no doubt, Cong. Clay did fire off a great question that his staff prepared for him. Here’s the question in an excerpt from the New York Times article:

“Representative William Lacy Clay, Democrat of Missouri, wondered why Lehman was allowed to fail and Goldman was bailed out.”

Mr. Paulson reiterated that the TARP did not exist at the time of the Lehman crisis in September, so the investment bank could not be saved. “Once we had the TARP in place, we had other tools in the toolbox,” he said. “A Fed loan to Lehman Brothers would not have prevented a bankruptcy.” Read more…

Hmmm. I think we may have discovered the answer to the Congressman’s question yesterday. We guess when you’re about to go belly up, it’s kind of difficult to hire a stable of high powered lobbyists like Goldman Sachs did.

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