AIG Bonuses, Keep Your Eye On The Ball-UPDATED
Congress and the President are spending a couple of TRILLION dollars on pork and earmarks, much of it going to special interests. For them to be publicly criticizing AIG, a private company is comedic beyond belief. Especially if you compare a measly 163 million in bonuses to what they are spending.
Yes, AIG exercised poor judgment in paying these bonuses (and for throwing lavish parties that have been criticized in these pages in the past). They are spending taxpayer’s dollars and citizens have the right to be outraged. But the government gave them the money with no strings attached and it has not been demonstrated that any laws have been broken. If it is determined that something illegal has occured, the government should investigate, charge and prosecute the offenders.
This is a free market economy. The government has no business publicly chastising any company for legally paying anyone any amount of compensation they choose, regardless of how foolish, ill timed or outlandish it appears. The government should pass laws that make sense, and enforce them uniformly. The criticism of AIG by the President and Congress is hypocritical, sets a dangerous precedent, and is outside the role of government.
A case can be made for taking troubled assets off financial institutions hands and allowing them to stay in business if they are otherwise financially sound, what the bailout bill was supposed to be all about. Let’s not forget that the banks were in financial trouble from making mortgages THE GOVERNMENT FORCED THEM TO MAKE to people that COULD NOT AFFORD THEM. It is the government’s fault that appropriate rules and safeguards were not included in the bill.
The public should not fall for this diversion from the real issue, Congress and President Obama’s increasingly obvious poor handling of the economy.
Americans, keep your eye on the ball.
UPDATE: Dodd Wrote Language To Allow Bonuses (Dodd is a recipient of over $100,000 in AIG Campaign Donations)
In a dramatic reversal Wednesday, Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., confessed to adding language to a spending cap in the stimulus bill last month that specifically excluded executive bonuses included in contracts signed before the bill’s passage. The rest here.
I agree. What can they really do?
Damn shame, but nothing Congress can do about it.