“You’re the first person to tell me that I’m being blamed for this because I’ve missed that,” said Speaker of the House, Nancy, or Nazi, Pelosi when a reporter told her at a press conference that her and her members are at fault for the AIG spending spree. After the taxpayers bailed out AIG, the company recently decided to award its top executives with $165 million in bonuses. Now the Obama Administration is outraged because a private company, bailed out by the taxpayers, is honoring employee contracts and awarding bonuses. The ultimate solution would have been to not bail out a private company at all and just let it run its course. Trust me, the company would have figured something out, or, failed. But since the government decided to inject itself into the company, regulations should have previously been established. Who’s to blame? Senate Banking Committee Chris Dodd told CNN Wednesday “he was responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses.” Senate Banking Committee Chairman, Chris Dodd created suspicion when he unexpectedly amended a bill a last month. “While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. The provision, now called “the Dodd Amendment” by the Obama Administration provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” — which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.” Dodd thinks about this now? That’s a little late. (http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/dodd-cracks-aig—time/) Dodd was the single largest AIG recipient of campaign funding ($103,000) last year. President Obama defended Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner’s “oversight” of the AIG bailout money. Obama said “I’ve asked Geithner to pursue every single legal avenue to block these bonuses and make the American taxpayers whole. I want to make clear that Geithner has been on the case.” I don’t think Geithner cares about the paid-by-the-taxpayer bonuses. He doesn’t pay his taxes anyway. To reprimand the bonus recipients, the House passed a bill that would tax a bailed-out-bonus 90 percent. You can’t tell a private company what to do with its money. Unless, of course, it’s government funded. So, bail them out and tell them what to do. And what’s next? “The top two members of the Senate Finance Committee on Tuesday announced a bill that would impose a 35 percent excise tax on the companies paying the bonuses and a 35 percent excise tax on the employees receiving them. The taxes would apply to all companies receiving government bailout money, but they are clearly geared toward AIG.” Our government officials are looking out for the taxpayers by taking back the bonus. “If they’re not going to give [the bonuses] back, we’re going to take them back!” said Alabama Dem. Artur Davis, But I though Washington’s government officials rewarded failure by bailing out companies? If they want to reward the taxpayers they should give us back their AIG contributions, the billions spent on bailing out failing companies, or, how about their automatic pay raises?
