Ronald Wilson Reagan“Government is not a solution to our problem, government is the problem”
Barack Hussein OBAMA“Let RUSH HealthCare Reform but take our time helping the TROOPS when asked.”
Democrats and Obama Knew about AIG Bonuses. Dems pushed it through and Obama signed it.
All of this was known about before hand and nobody said anything about it. The Fed has known and has been studying these bonuses for a very long time. Dems in Congress have known about these bonuses since the get go and there’s been a debate inside congress and the Fed and the treasury and the White House for months.These bonuses are written into the Stimulus Package! Dems in Congress said they would honor these contracts in the bill and Obama signed the freaking thing! How can Obama go on tv and feign outrage when he signed a bill promising these things would be honored?
“AIG is Obama’s ‘Katrina’ — in terms of an example of government’s failure — and the failure of presidential leadership.”
… That’s according to former Ohio Secretary of State and Family Research Council Senior Fellow Ken Blackwell.
Clearly the AIG bonus story has spurred a huge populist backlash — building on angst which had previously only been manifest during the Santelli rant — and subsequent tea parties.
But anger over the AIG bailout appears to be just now reaching fever pitch, and it is starting to look like the bonus scandal may be laid solely at the feet of Democrats (they are quickly moving to get tough with AIG, forcing people to pay back the bonus money, but it is becoming clear that some key Democratic leaders were aware of the bonuses before they were paid).
And because Republicans — who do not control the presidency or either house of congress — were excluded from the hastily-written stimulus bill, they can hardly be blamed for the bonuses being paid.
President Obama, of course, promised during the campaign that he wouldn’t sign anything unless it had been online for five days. “If this had been followed, business experts would have had time to review the bill, and we could have, perhaps, avoided this catastrophe. But President Obama broke his word, and now we are all stuck with paying this bill,” added Blackwell.
Blackwell believes the AIG bonus scandal has the potential to devastate Obama’s first term, just as President Bush’s mishandling of Katrina devastated his second term. “And just as President Bush had his point man, Michael Brown, President Obama has his point-man, Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner, said Blackwell.
But Geithner is not the only Democrat in hot water. Senator Chris Dodd is now front-and-center in this debate. Appearing on CNN today, Dodd admitted to having had a more intimate involvement in the AIG bonuses than he had previously let on. In fact, he added the bonus loophole into the stimulus package.
According to the AP:
Over the years, Dodd has been the top recipient of campaign contributions from AIG employees. During 2007-2008, when he ran for president, he received nearly $104,000 from AIG employees and their families, according to the Center for Responsive Politics, a nonpartisan group that monitors money in politics.
Interestingly, Dodd seems to be blaming Geithener’s Treasury Dept for the bonuses.
Don’t count on this to go away any time soon…
These businesses should have been allowed to file for Chapter 11. All of these bonus contracts that you rail against could have been voided legally in court under Chapter 11 and the companies could have restructured and continued on. Some of them might not have made it but such is life.
But Congress didn’t allow that, they wanted to bail them out and they agreed to pay these contracts in the Stimulus Bill with our tax payer dollars. So, while I agree that this is an outrage and these people shouldn’t be getting rewarded for running the company into the ground I’m not mad at them for expecting their contracts to be honored when Congress said they would.
I am, however, angry at Congress for not making AIG file Chapter 11 where these contracts could have been voided legally. I’m angry at Congress for writing the Stimulus Package to say that these contracts would be honored and now acting like they had no idea what was going on. And I’m angry at Obama’s hypocrisy for signing said bill and then going on tv and denouncing the very payments he had authorized.
I think that Congress and the President should be put on notice that we aren’t stupid enough to fall for their fake moral posturing when it’s their fault in the first place. They may not be completely at fault for AIG’s downfall, there was a lot of greed that lead to shady deals from the financial institution. But the Government sought to circumvent the very process (Chapter 11) it had set up to deal with situations like AIG’s (and all the other financial automobile companies) with the bailout. This whole situation is a farce.
Obama-Gate…start the impeachment process today!