Congress Tricked! – AIG
Over the last two weeks, people who represent us in the legislature, all the way up to President Obama, have spent thousands of hours in outrage because it has become public knowledge that AIG paid their executives a total of $165 million in bonuses. These bonuses were paid to the same executives that helped dig AIG into a deep hole they could not climb out of. Congress is outraged. We all have a reason to be outraged. Congress spent hours and hours to create a new law that would place a 93 percent tax on the bonuses so they could take the money back. I am the first to agree that the bonuses were inappropriate in this situation. What I am not in agreement with is how long this topic has been discussed and debated when 100 percent of our Nation’s leaders focus should be on getting the economy back on track. To put this in perspective, the taxpayers have spent $170 billion to keep AIG alive. The $165 million spent on bonuses is roughly 1000 times less than the $170 billion the government has provided. This would be like loaning your brother $1,000 and being outraged about how he spent $1.00 of the $1,000 you gave him for something other than the original purpose.
Is AIG wrong? You bet. Are Congress and the President wasting valuable time working on this issue to address the public’s outrage – and not the more pressing economic concerns? You bet. They have been tricked! The last time Congress was thrown this far off track was when they debated what is decent and what is obscene for days following the Janet Jackson wardrobe malfunction at the 2004 Super Bowl. Publish the names of all the executives who took the bonuses and get focused on the real issue – improving the economy and getting people back to work.
Filed Under: Peter's Blog on March 23rd, 2009
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