The Obama AIG Fiasco

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When watching this classic clip from Casablanca I’m reminded of this whole Democrat AIG fiasco going on:

Obama is shocked! Shocked, I tell ya, that these bonuses were paid out to executives of AIG right under his nose. Except of course the fact that Democrat Sen. Chris Dodd ensured it was possible AND Obama signed the damn bill. I mean he should of known what was in the bill before signing it right? That was the standard Bush was held to, it’s the standard Obama will be also. There are a few other nagging points to highlight, like say for instance the fact that Obama received over a hundred grand in campaign donations from AIG during his campaign…second only to….wait for it…..Sen. Chris Dodd. (h/t Race 4 2008)

Dodd – $103,100
Obama – $101,332

Race 4 2008 has the timeline:

The timeline:

September 16, 2008 $85B to AIG – first bailout installment
November 2008 Treasury learns of existence of retention contracts but not details
February 2009 Dodd Amendment exempting AIG bonuses from restrictions inserted in Stimulus bill
February 11, 2009 Obama signs Stimulus bill
March 2, 2009 Obama grants latest $30B bailout installment to AIG
March 5, 2009 Obama learns bonuses are $165B
March 9, 2009 Treasury learns full details of bonuses

A line used by many a liberal during the Bush years was of the “buck stops here” kind. Bush was President so he is ultimately at fault. So this should be applied to Obama right? He received lots of money from AIG, sent bailout money to AIG, signed a bill with the Dodd amendment in it, and is ultimately responsible for letting it happen.

But wait, his administration is going to fix it by giving AIG only 29.8 billion dollars instead of 30 billion.

I’m telling ya, this Obama administration is getting crazier and crazier as the days go by.

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You know, I’ll probably get flamed for this one but…

If I was the CEO of a company that talked the Federal Gov’t into just GIVING my company 100+ Billion Dollars with no strings attached, I think I would deserve one hell of a big bonus, no?

I still keep wondering why 2% of pork in the Omibus is supposedly no big deal, but 1/1000th of the AIG bailout to honor previously agreed to contracts… which Congress, Geithner etal fully knew about in advance of their payment… is unconcionable.

uh… okay….

I look at it this way. The recipients are likely to put that cash into circulation in the economy. Isn’t that what we want? Private sector money infusion? I’d rather have private investors receive that money than the big spending Congressional types. They are apt to use it more wisely.

Personally, I think all this is a deliberate distraction from the 2009 budget woes. This stuff is petty cash by comparison. But at least if those bozos are doing the hearings witch hunt, they aren’t busy spending and creating more nanny government institutions for the day.

AIG told them of the “retention bonus” long ago. Now the dems
want to act as if this was totally unknown to them.
The faux outrage is nothing more than an attempt by the dems to divert
attention from their corruption, bumbling, and attempts to turn America intro
Europe.

I agree, all this AIG dog and pony show AIG is just a distraction from other issues, not just the economy. There are so many things to distract from.

Another thing, I believe, is they heard the populist anger and are feeding it. Problem with that is it wll backfire and then they will have an irrate citizenry who is mad at… THEM!

What do expect they are Liberals and aren’t so bright.

http://franklinslocke.blogspot.com/

They are going after Dodd? Strange. According to the Left, this is Capitalism’s fault. Greed.

This might be a hit on him and get him out of office before he loses it his seat in an election. There was a poll out just last week have him even with a Republican.

Just saw where Freddie Mac and Fannie Mae will be paying out
retention bonuses. Gee, I just wonder why the dems aren’t going after
them? (sarcasm)

According to our lefty friends at Salon, it was the WHITE HOUSE and GEITHNER that insisted these bonuses be left as they were:

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/17/dodd/

That’s a really good read as Glen Greenwald flays the White House! The libs are starting to eat their own.

Greenwald was never a doctrinaire liberal, more of a left-libertarian.

Agree with Mata that all the outrage over bonuses seems like a manufactured show designed to distract from the real theft taking place. $156 million is a fair bit of money, but it doesn’t seem like a coincidence that it’s getting all the attention while the much larger sums that went Goldman Sachs, Deutsche Bank and so on are being forgotten. Seems to be a pattern where people are encouraged to get outraged at some fairly irrelevant item (CEOs flew private jets! BoA is buying private jets! Look at those AIG bonuses!) so as to distract from the billions being looted by various hedge funds and banks to cover their gambling losses.

The sock puppet is ripping them? That’s a surprise.

MataHarley #2:

I still keep wondering why 2% of pork in the Omibus is supposedly no big deal, but 1/1000th of the AIG bailout to honor previously agreed to contracts… which Congress, Geithner etal fully knew about in advance of their payment… is unconcionable.

Because rewarding failure for one is termed “bonus” and rewarding failure for the other is deemed “stimulus”?

“American Lion” is one of the books from Amazon that appears as an AD here on FA. I have always thought that corporations have had too much influence in campaigns (and lobbyists). Pres. Andrew Jackson had to destroy the Bank of the United States in order to secure our freedoms from moneyed interests. Now the moneyed interests have cratered and want unmitigated bailouts in order to keep the economy from collapse. No company receiving federal (our) money should be allowed to give any funds to lawmakers. EVER.

Word,

How is the pork, whether you like it or not, a reward for failure? It what sense did the recipients of the pork fail? BTW, despite my bias, I am not taking sides in the general discussion, but at this point just addressing your specific question.

I agree with others here–feigned outrage. With Obama, we always have to wonder the why. He is very calculating, and we dismiss him at our own peril. Every time he says or does something, such as this feigned outrage, we can be sure that he is covering up something else!

Breaking News: Dodd Says loophole that protects AIG Bonuses added per request of the Obama administration. The video is about a fifth of the way down.


http://www.butasforme.com/2009/03/17/obamas-stimulus-bill-explicitly-grants-aig-the-legal-right-to-hand-out-bonuses/

Obama should take full and direct responsibility for this mess.

The Democrats should change their name to the “Know Nothing” party. The only time they seem to know anything is when they think they can blame it on a Republican.