The
awarding of $165 million in bonuses to AIG executives has dominated the
news in the last week. There has been widespread outrage over the idea
that taxpayers' dollars are being used to reward the people who
effectively bankrupted AIG and cost the government more than $160
billion in bailout funds to meet the company's obligations. This primer
addresses some of the issues raised by both the bonuses and the much
larger sum going toward the AIG bailout.
SAN FRANCISCO - Thousands of angry U.S. workers took to the streets Thursday to protest some major banks and insurance companies that have handed out extravagant bonuses on the taxpayers' dime, as the U.S. House of Representatives voted to get some of the bonus money back.
"Banks get bailed out and people get sold out!" yelled janitors, hotel workers, security workers and others pounding on makeshift drums outside a Wells Fargo bank in San Francisco.
Watch out if you live in or visit Washington, D.C.
If you see a camera or microphone, be careful not to be trampled by a
politician rushing to shout their "outrage" at AIG, and its brazen
scheme to pay $165 million in bonuses to employees at the company unit
responsible for driving the company to the edge of insolvency.
Barack Obama is dumber than a bag of hammers.
I never thought I'd say that about the guy. I thought he would probably disappoint me with many of his policies. I thought he would probably fail to be bold enough for his times. I thought he might miss opportunities to do great things because of his seeming desire to be Mr. Rogers, complete with cardigan. But I never expected him to be really dumb.
On Wednesday afternoon, as President Barack Obama was leaving the White House for a town hall meeting in California, he spoke for 15 minutes to reporters about the AIG controversy. Responding to the rising rage over the $165 million or so in bonuses paid to executives at the bailed-out insurance firm, Obama noted that he was quickly developing policies to prevent future AIG-like catastrophes.
Democrats from Andrew Cuomo to Barney Frank to Barack Obama are
demanding that the 418 AIG employees who received bonuses give them
back. Sure, it's outrageous that the very people who drove AIG off the
cliff, along with a whole lot of other financial firms, walked away
with million-dollar bonuses paid with taxpayer bailout money.
There is a major push underway -- engineered by Obama's Treasury officials, enabled by a mindless media, and amplified by the right-wing press
-- to blame Chris Dodd for the AIG bonus payments. That would be
perfectly fine if it were true. But it's completely false, and the
scheme to heap the blame on him for the AIG bonus payments is based on
demonstrable falsehoods.
