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. Steve Israel, D-New York: "The American people have had it with all the posturing and the politics, they want their money back."

Rep. Kendrick Meek, D-Florida: "No one is calling my district office and saying 'Congressman, please file an inquiry into these bonuses.' They're saying get it back and get it back now."

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”:

"Everybody's angry," he said. "But I think that the best way to handle this is to make sure that you close the door before the horse gets out of the barn. And what happened here was the money's already gone out, and people are scrambling to try to find ways to get back at them."

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 outrageмебели софия 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.