ObamaOdrama

Treasury Secretary Tim “Turbo Tax” Geither is expressing our outrage at AIG with the next $30 billion in government(?) assistance due soon minus a couple bucks.

Here is a portion of the FoxNews report:

Acknowledging “considerable outrage” about the bonus payments, Geithner said AIG will pay the Treasury an amount equal to the payments, and the Treasury will deduct that amount from the $30 billion in government assistance that will soon go to the company.

“We will impose on AIG a contractual commitment to pay the Treasury from the operations of the company the amount of the retention awards just paid,” Geithner said in a letter to congressional leaders.

That’ll teach them… right?

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) claims being told about the controversy last week. That I can believe but the question is did the senator know about the bonuses before then.

Rich Edson from Fox Business reveals:

Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9643, 0.1842, 23.61%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

Thanks, senator… you’re really looking out for us aren’t you.

Let’s face it, no one really likes the financial bailout. I, myself, even chanted “let them fail!” It seemed that collectively we opposed such action until the governement decided “we” will bailout entities it feels are critical to reviving the economy. Thanks?

Lets be honest. Do the Fed and Treasury really think that using our tax dollars to save companies or individuals who made bad decisions is seriously going improve their future decisions or change the direction of this economy?

Take today’s headlines about American International Group (AIG), recipient of $170 billion of our tax dollars, awarding it’s top executives $165 million in bonuses. Just another example of throwing good money after bad.

Why on earth did the Fed and Treasury feel compelled to use our money to save AIG, which faced collapse in Sept. 2008 as a result of it’s involvement in the most speculative element of the financial world? You’d have ask the mastermind behind the AIG bailout, Tim “Turbo Tax” Geithner.

And when AIG’s “top” execs took a $400,000 vacation after receiving the first $85 billion bailout in Sept. 2008, what did Geithner et. al. do to ensure our money was used for more critical business activities? Just reward AIG with more of our money. You’d think with a 80% stake in the company we might have some say.

So when I hear Obama talk about how he’s choked up with anger about AIG’s latest scandal, I say how dare you patronize the American people and send the architect of the AIG bailout to exact our outrage.

No one is buying this change.

Obama's Justice