Obama seeks to defuse AIG uproar, refocus on economy

Reuters on Yahoo ^ | 3/19/09 | Ross Colvin and Jeff Mason

[NormsRevenge]

LOS ANGELES (Reuters) – U.S. President Barack Obama sought on Thursday to tamp down public anger over the AIG bonus scandal and refocus Americans' attention on the bigger picture -- his administration's efforts to fix the economy.

"We can be as mad as we want, but ... we gotta work through this huge mess that was made in the financial system," Obama told a town hall-style meeting in Los Angeles attended by 1,100 people who had stood in line for hours to hear him speak.

"I understand how mad everybody is about this AIG bonuses business. I'm mad. But fixing the system requires us understanding that if banks are not ... lending then businesses will not be able to invest and we will not be able to create jobs," Obama said.

[NormsRevenge]

"We can be as mad as we want, but ... we gotta work through this huge mess that was made in the financial system,"

--

We? Kimosabe?

All WE get to do is pay for YOUR party's incompetence and 'win at any cost' approach.

[April Lexington]

“Hey, did someone step in dog poop?”

[FlingWingFlyer]

http://www.investors.com/editorial/cartoon.asp

[Drango]

What did 0bamas administration know, and when did they know it?

[April Lexington]

we gotta work through this huge mess that was made in the financial system,"

I hate to have to break it to you there, TOTUS, but the guys who made this mess are all Democrats!

[Gator113]

“I understand how mad everybody is...”

You can’t possibly have a clue.

[NormsRevenge]

I had to laugh when I read that.. every once in awhile, our poodle leaves my wife with a little ‘gift’ on the kitchen floor.. and .. step,,, Yes. ;-)

[NormsRevenge]

LOL .. Dodd.. to a T.

[Parley Baer]

Hey TOTUS you and your guys started this AIG mess. You thought is was going to be fun and games going after those “retention bonuses” however now that it has blown up in your face you want to move on.

How convenient, but I don’t think the whole story has been told. Especially the money laundering scheme using AIG to send billions to foreign banks.

[Cicero]

Here’s the list of top AIG recipients for the 2008 campaign [ABC News]:

1. Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., $103,100
2. Sen. Barack Obama, D-Ill., $101,332
3. Sen. John McCain, R-Ariz., $59,499
4. Sen. Hillary Clinton, D-N.Y., $35,965
5. Sen. Max Baucus, D-Mont., $24,750
6. Former Gov. Mitt Romney, (R) Pres $20,850
7. Sen. Joe Biden, D-Del., $19,975
8. Rep. John Larson, D-Conn, $19,750
9. Sen. John Sununu, R-N.H., $18,500
10. Former Mayor Rudolph Giuliani (R) Pres $13,200
11. Rep. Paul Kanjorski, D-Pa., $12,000
12. Sen. Dick Durbin, D-Ill., $11,000

[NormsRevenge]

Caught a bit of the Republican Senate leaders on Cspan discussing the entire bonuses issue and asking how can you fix something when you haven’t researched and figured out why our financial system was thwacked so hard to begin with and that FreddyMac and FannieMae are also in need of a serious once over as well.

Senators Kyl and Cornyn want a hearing that would seek to do just that.

We’ll see.

I agree, I know we lived in an interconnected world, but something smells when that many billions and ideally trillions are shipped all over the globe without any forethought or audit trail that shows what palm is greasing whose skids and such.

[odin2008]