“It shouldn’t be comfortable or luxurious to be in TARP.”

Crony capitalism couldn’t be any more blatant than in the auto bailout known as TARP.

Christy Romero, the special inspector general overseeing the bailout, said that the Treasury Department allows such high compensation for executives at bailed-out auto companies as to create an incentive for other companies to seek bailouts.

“Absolutely,” Romero replied when Rep. Kerry Bentivolio, R-Mich., asked her if the Treasury Department had created a “moral hazard” by approving so many pay increases. “It shouldn’t be comfortable or luxurious to be in TARP.”

But it is — thanks to the politicians who put you and me in the position of enabling poorly managed companies to feed at the public trough.