This past week, we have all been watching as Congress has relentlessly been chastising AIG for paying bonuses with the taxpayers’ bailout money. In fact, the harsh and poignant language has initiated a nationwide outcry against AIG, leading to numerous ad hominem attacks and death threats directed at AIG employees. And, the House of Representatives has once again hastily pushed through a 90% punitive tax bill that will target the recipients of the bonuses allocated by companies receiving bailout funds.
House members have been objectionably vociferous in condemning the bailout distributions by the economic giant, AIG:
Rep. Jared Polis, D-Colorado:. We will subpoena your boards and haul you before Congress. We will use personal rhetoric to decry your greed — we will make life miserable."
Even President Obama has publicly jumped on board the tongue-lashing locomotive, railroading companies like AIG, as he made history being the first sitting president to appear on the “Tonight Show With Jay Leno”:
What the president is not telling you is that he secretly supported the AIG bonuses. I couldn’t believe it either, but in my investigation, I discovered several things I found hard to believe. I think it is necessary for all Americans to know the true story behind the AIG bonus scandal.
First, in an earlier post on BloggersBase, A-I-Gee Whiz!, I posed the question, “How hard is it to say, ‘if – you – take – this – money, – you – can't – use – it – for – bonuses’?” I also questioned the competence of our Congress for failing to make such stipulations, and then acting outraged when the bonuses were payed. However, it appears that a bipartisan amendment to the latest stimulus bill in February was proposed by Senators Olympia Snowe, R–Maine, and Ron Wyden, D–Oregon, that would have placed a 35% excise tax on bonuses in excess of $100,000 paid from the bailout coffers. It passed in the Senate, but in last minute closed-door negotiations between the White House and the House of Representatives, the amendment was dropped.
In an interview, Senator Snowe (amendment co-sponsor) told CNN: "We tried. It simply didn't happen, and that's a tragedy, given what's happened today [March 17]." Majority Leader Harry Reid dodged a question from CNN, when asked if dropping the amendment was a mistake.
When questioned about the new punitive tax bill, Senate Finance Committee Chairman Max Baucus, D-Montana, reportedly stated, "Frankly it was such a rush — we're talking about the stimulus bill now — to get it passed, I didn't have time and other conferees didn't have time to address many of the provisions that were modified significantly…We shouldn't be here. That should have passed, but it didn't."
If that were not enough, an exemption clause was added to the February stimulus bill that said new rules "shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009." The added exemption clause directly permitted paying the AIG bonuses that are now being so heatedly admonished.
So what about President Obama’s secret support of the AIG bonuses? A Wall Street Journal website (online.wsj.com) reports that “Members of the administration question whether the appearance of unpredictability by Congress gives potential investors the idea the government program is too risky.” And that, “Administration officials are worried banks won't participate in the program or won't be able to attract talented managers to run the firms because of the bonus restrictions.” Remember, the last minute changes in the February stimulus bill – the ones that permitted the bonus allocations – were a product of “closed door negotiations” between the White House and the House of Representatives.
So, as you listen to all of the overly dramatic outrage being expressed by Congress and the White House, don’t forget that they knowingly paved the road to the AIG bonus scandal. And what happened to the promise of a new government of transparency? Well, in my search for the truth (which was very time-consuming) I had to dig my way through a tangled web of ambiguous duplicity.
I loved the headline today from an AP article. It read, Obama tempers furor over AIG bonuses. I thought, yeah, ya know, he really should temper that furor…SINCE HE, ALONG WITH HIS CONGRESSIONAL BEDFELLOWS, ENGINEERED IT!!!
Where’s the outrage over that, America? Where’s the front page story decrying the hypocrisy of our new leadership? How they went behind closed doors to play, Let’s Make A Deal with AIG…so no one would know who put the provision in. But we all know who knew don’t we? Gone is the promise of transparency. Gone is the promise of cleaning up Washington…of removing the deadwood status quo. But the smart ones already knew that. The rest were either too stupid or just deceptive enough to play along.
The Washington Times published an article
Monday, March 30, 2009
EXCLUSIVE: AIG chiefs pressed to donate to Dodd
http://www.washingtontimes.com/news/2009/mar/30/aig-chiefs-pressed-to-donate-to-dodd/print/
about Sen. Christopher Dodd and his interaction with AIG (getting their employee’s money and support for his election campaign) Why is there such an outrage? I believe it’s playing the media (and their followers) for the dupes they are and how they can be whipped into a frenzy within the current news cycle.
And then we still watch, or listen, to that same media?
I think I’ll go re-read the Old Testament book of “Judges.”
At least in that book there’s some real “judgment” going on. Almost like, I dunno, actual CONSEQUENCES?
It continues to get worse for the Obama administration. Apparently, President Obama has appointed AIG board member, Martin Feldstein, to his new “Task Force on Tax Reform.”
So, is Obama really “outraged” with the business practices of AIG? It certainly doesn’t appear he is.
I agree with you, Dwight, when you stated, “Why is there such an outrage? I believe it’s playing the media (and their followers) for the dupes they are and how they can be whipped into a frenzy within the current news cycle.”
We can rule out the idea of “change” in Washington. It’s just more of the same duplicitous “talking out of both sides of your mouth.”
The irony??? We all predicted the president was one of them. A political power broker. One of the political “elite.” Part of the good ol boys club inside the Beltway. What’s pathetic is that some of the electorate which put him in power are acting surprised by all of this. They’re beginning to grumble, beginning to get suspicious. The rest just continue on in their relative Party stupor.