The outrage over the AIG bonuses by both politicians and the public at large would be almost funny if it weren’t so sad. First of all, the politicians expressing such “outrage” over the AIG bonuses knew about them in advance. The bonuses were protected by Sen. Chris Dodd’s amendment to the stimulus package!
So the White House and Congress deflects the anger that should rightfully be directed at them, toward the CEO of AIG, Edward Liddy. Liddy is a guy who stepped in at the government’s encouragement six months ago at a salary of $1… and now he has to be subjected to the blubbering, shrieking, rantings of Barney Frank. Liddy should get all the bonus money himself just for having to put up with that.
If AIG hadn’t been bailed out with taxpayer money, then we wouldn’t be having this ridiculous spectacle at all would we?
Meanwhile, the totals of the stimulus and bailout packages keep mounting — they now total more than $10 trillion. This is on top of an existing $11 trillion in national debt.
Despite this insanity, the Obama administration still plans to press on with their socialist health care and cap-and-trade schemes, which will cost another $2 - $3 trillion each (and ruin the energy and health care industries). These are the things we should really be outraged at.
Don’t believe that the total bailouts and stimulus has exceeded $10 trillion? Here are the actual numbers, courtesy of Casey Research.
Commercial paper programs - $1.86 trillion
Term auction facility - $1.6 trillion
Other assets - $606 billion
Finance company debt purchases - $800 billion
Money market investor funding facility - $540 billion
Citigroup bailout - $291 billion
Term securities lending - $250 billion
Term asset-backed loan facility - $200 billion
Other credit extensions - $123 billion
Discount window - $142 billion
Bear Stearns assets - $29 billion
Overnight loans - $10 billion
FDIC Loan guarantees - $1.4 trillion
Guarantee to GE Capital - $139 billion
Citigroup Bailout II - $10 billion
TARP - $700 billion
Stimulus package (2008) - $168 billion
Treasury Exchange Stabilization Fund - $50 billion
Tax breaks for banks - $29 billion
FHA Hope for homeowners - $300 billion
American Recovery Reinvestment Bill (2009) - $825 billion
U.S. Goverment Total - $10.1 trillion
On top of that, after robbing the taxpayers to bail out AIG in the first place — knowing that these prior bonus contracts existed and approving them before giving them the money — your Congress has decided to “take” the bonus money back by raising the tax rate on the bonuses to 90%.
This is utterly un-constitutional and amounts to outright confiscation. Although nobody should shed tears for the AIG execs, think about the precedent this sets. Barney Frank is already on record saying he would like Congress to cap the pay of executives at private companies.
First they came for the AIG bonuses, who will be next?
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