Posted on 03/20/2009 4:51:19 AM PDT by Kaslin
We will hunt you down!" thundered Colorado Democratic Rep. Jared Polis during the AIG bonus demagogue-a-thon on the House floor Thursday. "If they're not going to give [the bonuses] back, we're going to take them back," growled Alabama Democratic Rep. Artur Davis, who vowed to recover the taxpayers' "ill-gotten gains" from rogue corporate executives. House Republicans pressed the Democrats on who knew what and when regarding the AIG bonus protections included in Connecticut Sen. Chris Dodd's now infamous amendment to the stimulus bill. Rep. Barney Frank shrieked about the Bush administration's culpability. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi smugly patted Democrats on the back for "protecting the national interest."
ask you now to turn away from the bogus bonus smokescreen over $165 million in taxpayer-backed compensation packages for AIG employees. It is a pittance compared to the gargantuan spending spree happening right under our noses. The AIG bonus price tag amounts to one tenth of 1 percent of the total AIG giveaway ($85 billion in September, $37.8 billion in October; $40 billion in November; $30 billion in early March), which took place with the assent of a Republican administration, a Democratic administration and the congressional leadership of both parties.
Taxpayers might be less skeptical of the born-again guardians of fiscal responsibility if these evangelists were actually practicing what they preached. While the Obama administration now issues impassioned calls to stop rewarding failure, they moved Thursday to dump another $5 billion into the failing auto industry. That's on top of Thursday's announcement by the Federal Reserve to print $1 trillion to buy Treasury bonds and mortgage securities sold by the government -- which no one else wants to buy.
Financial blogger Barry Ritholtz tallied up $8.5 trillion in bailout costs by December 2008 between Federal Reserve, FDIC, Treasury and Federal Housing Administration rescues (not including the $5.2 trillion in Fannie and Freddie portfolios that the U.S. taxpayer is now explicitly responsible for). Then there's the (at least) $50 billion proposed by Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner in February to bail out home owners and lenders who made bad home loan decisions, which would be just a small sliver of the $2.5 trillion he wants to spend on the next big banking bailout, which would draw on the second $350 billion of the TARP package over which an increasing number of Chicken Little lawmakers are having buyer's remorse.
Phew. We're not done yet: As AIG-bashing lawmakers inveighed against wasted taxpayer funds and lamented the lack of accountability and rush to judgment that led to passage of the porkulus bill that mysteriously protected the bonuses, the Senate quietly passed a $10 billion lands bill stuffed with earmarks and immunized from amendments. GOP Sen. Tom Coburn, fiscal conservative loner, pointed out that none of the provisions for special-interest pork projects -- including $3.5 million in spending for a birthday bash celebrating the city of St. Augustine, Fla. -- was subject to public hearings. That's on top of the pork-stuffed $410 billion spending bill passed two weeks ago.
Oh, and did I mention that the House passed a $6 billion volunteerism bill (the "GIVE Act") on Wednesday to provide yet another pipeline to left-wing advocacy groups under the guise of encouraging national service?
Also coming down the pike: the Obama administration's "cap-and-trade" global warming plan, which Hill staffers learned this week could cost close to $2 trillion (nearly three times the White House's initial estimate) and the administration's universal health care scheme, which health policy experts reported this week could cost about $1.5 trillion over the next decade.
It is no wonder that when earlier this week Vice President Joe Biden told local officials in Washington that he was "serious, absolutely serious" about policing wasteful spending in Washington, he was met with the only rational response his audience could muster: laughter.
Congress pretends to be holding pitchforks and torches and chasing the “bad guy” in order to hope to fool the public into not chasing THEM with pitchforks and torches.
Could not agree more!
We were told to ignore the earmarks and pork in the stimulus bill because it was a mere fraction of the total.
The AIG bonuses are less than one-tenth of 1% of the total bailout money given, yet the outrage is huge.
More liberal hypocrisy.
AMEN!!! Keep repeating!!! I would if I knew how to cut and paste.
p.s. CREDIT - George Smiley
Awww, shucks.
THANKS!!! Cqan you put that on EVERY Thread it applies to??? PLEASE!!
Sounds like a direct, immanent, verbal threat. I coulda swore we had laws against such things.
Someone find a lawyer willing to bring charges. I'll sign on as a witness...
Trying in any way, to justify the AIG failed execs taxpayer funded bonuses....is SOCIALISM
Its sad to see so many, who I thought were conservative, support welfare for execs of a failed company, bailed out by the taxpayers. This AIG stuff has turned a lot of people Socialist....supporting taxpayer funded bonuses for failed execs....the new “welfare queens”
“WE WILL HUNT YOU DOWN!”
I had wrongly thought that Heinrich Himmler, Joseph Goebbels, Reinhard Heydrich, and Sepp Dietrich had died in the ashes of the Third Reich. I now learn, to my horror, that they are alive and members of the Congress of the United States.
When were they granted citizenship in our country?
What the hell has happened to our country?
Pointing the finger at AIG, especially after Congressional action brought on the subprime crisis, the housing bubble, and so many of the fundamental underlying ills of the current economy is just pushing the blame off on someone else.
In addition, these employees had been awarded the bonuses, then by legislative decree are to be singled out and taxed at an unprecedented rate.
Suppose you got a bonus and then Congress went after yours. It is a dangerous precedent, whether we feel these people deserved the compensation or not.
If Congress decides that your wages are too high, are you next?
Do you want the real architects of the entire economic mess to have the power to single out small groups of people and use law to penalize them after the fact? (Ex post Facto?)
While I agree, the bonuses should not have been awarded (language in the bill should have precluded them), especially to executives who were part of the problem in order to retain them (they broke it, they can fix it?), permitting Congress to act blameless and pass punitive legislation in the heat of the moment is a dangerous precedent.
Today it will be on bonuses awarded with taxpayer money, next it will be oil company CEOs who positioned their companies to make billions, then the little people's Christmas bonuses...all the while Congress votes itself more raises and bennies.
Congress pretends to be holding pitchforks and torches and chasing the “bad guy” hoping to delude the public into not chasing THEM with pitchforks and torches.
I think you should ask the person who posted it to do so.
But YOU posted it in Uber Caps where even an old lady like me can read it....:)
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