Articles Of Interest About The Manufactured Outrage Concerning The AIG Bonus
These are just a snippets, be sure to read each article
SPARE US YOUR FAKE FURY, DC HYPOCRITES
ALL the world’s a stage, wrote Shakespeare, and in the world of Washington, the curtains have opened on the most elaborate farce of the year.
Welcome, taxpayers, to the Kabuki Theater of AIG Outrage – where DC’s histrionic enablers of taxpayer-funded corporate bailouts compete for Best Performance of Hypocritical Indignation.
Bozell Column: Congress and Excess
Outrage burst forth from lawmakers in Washington when the story broke that insurance giant AIG still planned to dole out $165 million in bonuses to executives while it teeters near bankruptcy, kept afloat by taxpayers. But the outrage is mostly coming from hypocrites. Just days earlier, President Obama signed an omnibus spending bill with $12.8 billion in self-serving earmarks for legislators during the economic crisis. How can the president and Congress lecture AIG? Don’t the earmarking hogs look like hypocrites?
Liberals dismiss complaints about their drunken spending habits as just a conservative distraction. Why, it’s only a couple percentage points of the omnibus spending bill. So how much of the AIG bailout is for bonuses? The company has benefited from more than $170 billion in government bailout cash, or one dollar out of a thousand. If the earmarks are a tiny distraction, the AIG bonuses are less than insignificant.
Greenwald’s Half-Truth On AIG Bonuses
Greenwald tries to shift the blame for those AIG bonuses from Dodd back to Treasury. He’s relying on this FDL post but that’s mostly half-truth, as well.
Treasury didn’t simply “demand” Dodd loosen any restrictions so these bonuses could be paid. He informed Dodd his legislation was flawed and would only lead to more trouble, including expensive law suits.
In developing news Geithner has released a letter sent to Pelosi just today. But the politics are going to play out, here’s a new wire story on all this. The Rangel quote on any move to recoup the bonuses is at least fun. Of course he doesn’t see it as a weapon, it’s a cash cow to him.
Not all Democratic leaders were racing in that direction. Penalizing people with the tax code could be inappropriate, declared Rep. Charlie Rangel, D-N.Y., chairman of the taxwriting Ways and Means Committee. He said, “It’s difficult for me to think of the code as a political weapon.”
The bottom line for now is that the politics are only going to work against the plan, assuming you support it. Geithner wants to recoup the bonuses by taking it from future monies to be paid. Fine. But that doesn’t take it from the employees. It only takes cash away from the very thing they feel requires propping up – AIG.
What this entire fiasco documents is how bad an idea it is when the government gets its hands around elements of the private sector. They invariably screw it up.
BIZ: GOVERNMENT HANDS AIG $62B FOR $29B IN CDS
EDITORIAL: MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE
Obama flees to Leno. Next stop: Dance Party II with DeGeneres?
When in panic mode, return to the campaign trail. Take to the comedy and cable shows. Relive the glory. This is the White House m.o.
Recall that when the porkulus bill was in danger, President Obama hosted a revival meeting in Florida and held a rally in Indiana.
Now, in the face of the AIG debacle — compounded by bipartisan revolts over his VA plan to bill private insurers for injured troops’ care, increasing dissent over Card Check, and mounting Democrat doubts over his $410 billion spending bill — Obama is flying to Hollywood to hold hands and yuk it up with Jay Leno on Thursday.
What’s next? A pity party with the women of The View? A return trip to Ellen DeGeneres for Dance Party II?
