IT IS BARELY spring, but the atmosphere in the nation’s capital has gotten so heated that it has become downright toxic.
At the center of the boiling mess is AIG, the terribly mismanaged insurer of financial offerings that is apparently so necessary to the economic recovery of the United States that it has been given $180 billion in federal bailout money. Part of that money, $165 million — less than a tenth of 1 percent of the bailout — went to bonuses and “retention payments” for AIG employees.
The resulting anger in Washington and the nation at large, while understandable, has become so fevered and destructive that it threatens to stall efforts to put the economy back on track.
The situation is also fueling calls for bloody revenge. Edward Liddy, who was brought in to run AIG at the insistence of the U.S. Treasury Department when the bailout process began, told a congressional panel this week that the company has received messages threatening company officials, the employees who received payments and the employees’ families. Not all the calls for blood were anonymous. Sen. Charles Grassley suggested Monday that the company’s managers should consider suicide.
Grassley and other overheated members of Congress might consider jumping in the Potomac to cool off.
The United States has sunk a great deal of money into AIG to keep it and other banks and investors around the world afloat. If the effort is successful, AIG will be able to repay most of the billions it has received. But if Congress, tired of the phrase “Too big to fail,” decides to stop playing the bailout game, the government, which now is the de facto owner of the company, would be lucky to realize pennies on the dollar when AIG’s assets were sold.
By the same token, Congress has the power to enact a punitive tax on all the AIG employees who received payments. But should it do that?
This is beginning to sound like Abu Ghraib. In the investigation of mistreatment of prisoners at that prison in Iraq, a few soldiers were sacrificed by the Pentagon, but Congress and the nation failed to demand an investigation of the systematic use of torture by the U.S. government itself.
There is plenty to be investigated in the credit meltdown, but Congress is distracting the attention of the nation with the AIG bonus sideshow. Meanwhile, the big fish on Wall Street and elsewhere recline on their comfortable bags of undeserved cash and shake their heads sadly at the avarice of AIG’s employees.
The people Congress should be looking at are the AIG executives who gave the employees contracts that rewarded failure and dirty dealing. They — and others like them in the economic power structure of the nation — are the ones who ran their companies and the national economy into the ground. The bonuses are just one more bad debt incurred by the incompetent old management.
It is time to turn down the heat in Washington and turn up the heat on the Wall Street culture that produced these outrages.
Patrick S. Kelley
Editorial Page Editor
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
And now, as Paul Harvey used to say, "The Rest Of The Story":
"The truth comes out, slowly but surely. Senator Chris Dodd finally admitted to CNN that he was infact the one responsible for adding the bonus loophole into the stimulus package that permitted AIG and other companies that received bailout funds to pay bonuses. This is a complete 360 (to use a CNN term) from Tuesday, when Dodd flat out denied to CNN that he had anything to do with the loophole. But its not Dodd’s fault (according to Dodd). He now says The Treasury Department was responsible for inserting exemptions into the stimulus bill that allowed bailout recipients to receive bonuses."
This one is good, too:
Obama, Dodd Outraged at AIG Campaign Cash
by Scott Ott
(2009-03-17) — As the furor over AIG executive bonuses threatened to bring the current economic recovery to a halt, President Barack Obama and Sen. Chris Dodd today threw fuel on the fire, announcing their “fierce outrage” upon hearing that the insurance giant had given each of their campaigns more than $100,000 last year.
“While AIG was collapsing, and her executives crawling to DC with hat in hand,” said Sen. Dodd, D-CT, “my campaign, and then-Senator Obama’s were getting what can only be termed influence bonuses from the same firm. Naturally, I knew nothing about this, and I’m now seething with anger at the injustice.”
President Obama and Sen. Dodd were the two largest recipients of campaign contributions from the beleaguered company, and the only politicians to garner six-figure amounts from AIG in 2008 — $103,100 for Sen. Dodd and $100,332 for presidential candidate Obama.
AIG, which has received $170 billion in taxpayer cash from the federal government since September, gave more than $585,000 to Congressional and presidential candidates last year, favoring Democrats 3-to-1 over Republicans.
In unrelated news, Sen. Dodd proposed legislation requiring AIG political gifts to be returned to the U.S. Treasury, “exempting only those campaign contributions made before November 4, 2008.”
The senator’s office immediately issued a statement declaring that Sen. Dodd was not aware that he had proposed such the exemption."
LOLOLOL
Maybe, me thinks Congress needs to take a look in the mirror when they need to decide who to "turn up the heat on"..........
March 21, 2009 at 1:40 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
seriouslyfolks (anonymous) says...
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/29814954
Another one on Doddy.
You notice how Patrick Kelly tends to take it easy on the Dems in congress. Imagine if he could blame this on Bush. Woooooo look out!
March 21, 2009 at 6:16 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
Thanks Observation - he's so far left usually, that anything right down the middle is quite a counterpoint/balance to him.
March 21, 2009 at 8:35 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
boomer46 (anonymous) says...
I think this video from CNBC with Maxine Waters explains why everyone was so surprised at the bonuses, they don't read anything before they vote. Everyone should be outraged to hear this little tidbit. Didn't we vote for these legislators to look out for us and to know what they are voting for? Their staffs read the legislation and give them the highlights to vote on.
This is about 7 minutes long but it does get better as it goes on.
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/21134540/...
March 23, 2009 at 6:13 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
boomer46 (anonymous) says...
Sorry, it was on MSNBC.
March 23, 2009 at 6:14 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )
open_eyes (anonymous) says...
And who pushed it thru, said we didn't have time to delay? Pelosi had to get going on her trip, ya know......
I remember hearing quite a few voices complaining they didn't have time to read it..... but they were basically told to shut up and vote.... Congress...... what a bunch of morons....
March 23, 2009 at 7:36 p.m. ( permalink | suggest removal )