BRITISH RUM COMPANY RECEIVED $2.7 MILLION FROM U.S. BANK BAILOUT

When Congress passed a massive $700 billion bank bailout last October, it was difficult to predict the quantity of pork that had been added by legislators.

In the past few months, Americans have learned that, thanks to the legislation, they were paying for Nascar auto-racing tracks, restaurant chains such as Burger King, movie and television producers, and on and on.

And this weekend, Bloomberg discovered a new one — $2.7 million to the British rum company “Captain Morgan” to move its production from the U.S. island of Puerto Rico to St. Croix, a different U.S. island.

In June 2008, U.S. Virgin Islands Governor John deJongh Jr. agreed to give London-based Diageo Plc billions of dollars in tax incentives to move its production of Captain Morgan. [...]

DeJongh says he had no idea his deal would help make the world’s largest liquor distiller the most unlikely beneficiary of the emergency Troubled Asset Relief Program approved by Congress just four months later.

So… I’m all for Captain Morgan and the joyous things it produces. But if a liquor company can’t support itself, then it has got to go.

Propping up banks to prevent a possible economic collapse is one thing. Propping up liquor companies so people themselves will have to be propped up on a Friday night is another thing.