Never Let a Crisis Go To Waste
terribly early in the morning on Sunday, the 22nd of March 2009 by Katie
Our country is being led to a dark, scary place. Change we can believe in.
And, now the administration is not going to let the AIG crisis go to waste.
AIG. Three little letters that have most taxpayers rightfully seeing red. But, AIG is not completely to blame. Look at your elected officials, also. Why aren’t you equally (if not twice) as angry at them?
But, like the woman who has discovered that her husband is cheating on her with some other woman, we are choosing to be angry at the mistress (AIG) – the one that doesn’t owe us anything, the one that has never promised us anything – instead of being mad at the husband (your elected idiots) – the one that stood next to you, promising to forsake all others, in other words the one that owes you everything.
I’m not saying that I am a fan of the bonuses. But, I am even less of a fan of government intervention. AIG had contracts that established the bonuses. If they had filed for bankruptcy, they would have been able to renegotiate the contracts using law that is already on the books. But, instead, our government handed them billions of no strings attached tax payer money.
An interesting (and I am sure completely unrelated – hee, hee) fact is that Dodd and Obama received the largest amount of contributions from AIG for 2008.
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
So, AIG is just getting a return on their investment – politicians using tax payer money to ensure continued employment.
Back to the original story.
After handing AIG billions in money, the Congress then hands them billions more. And someone (Dodd, the treasury, the administration, story changes constantly) stuck in the bill the provision allowing the bonuses to be paid out. They stuck it in knowingly – they knew that there were bonuses, and they knew how much. And now Congress, the very same Congress who passed the Stimulus in record time, ensuring that no one – not even themselves – could possibly read the bill beforehand, Congress is using the fact that they didn’t read it as an excuse.
Why don’t they just say that they dog ate their homework/bill?
And now you see our politicians – whipped into a fury, crying for the blood of the AIG executives. Willing to break the our Constitution, in order to impose a punitive 90% tax.
And the American people are whipped into the very same fury – but their anger is aimed at AIG – not the enabler/collaborator government.
Which comes to the crisis that the gov can’t let go to waste.
All banks. Not just the one that took tax payer money. All.
The administration has been considering increased oversight of executive pay for some time, but the issue was heightened in recent days as public fury over bonuses spilled into the regulatory effort.
The crisis that they can’t let go to waste. (“Come into my parlour”, said the spider to the fly. – imaginary paraphrasing of the conversation between the gov and the bailout companies)
And here is my scary place – yesterday, the gov started regulating executive pay for companies that accepted the bailout money; today, they are talking about regulating executive pay of companies that didn’t take the bailout money. So, what will tomorrow bring? How long before the gov decides how much money YOU should make?
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(2 votes, average: 5.00 out of 5)
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March 23rd, 2009 at 7:57 am
What we have here is a failure to communicate! I believe our government has misread the ire of the people. I do believe the people are mad at their representatives as much as AIG, maybe more. What our elected officials are proposing is class warfare. Obama(lamadingdong) has proposed this from day one of his campaign. It is the fault of the rich that all bad things happen. Fact is, if i inderstand correctly, these AIG bonuses are not based on performance but are meant for retention purposes. Of course one might argue that those at AIG that were a big part of the companies failure should not be retained, but maybe they just did too good a job following company policy handed down from the top, and if given a better policy, would follow that just as well. So I can’t fault the company for meeting its contractual obligations. The government is completely at fault for allowing the bonuses. This doesn’t need to be regulated really. This administration is simply once again going after the rich as scapegoats. I wouldn’t put it past them to have schemed this whole bonus fiasco in order to further their socialist agenda. OBLD and company won’t be satisfied until the rich are taxed at pre-Kennedy levels. This punative tax measure is proof. It is a dangerous precedent. Who do they increase the tax on next? All CEO’s? Presidents and vp’s of companies? Small business owners (wait they hit them already)? Personally, until the elected government starts paying taxes on their salaries, pay SS, and give up their lifetime pensions I cannot take any of their financial wrangling against the rich seriously. We need a national referendum for term limits. Let’s get rid of professional politicians and elect some people who care about the consituency more than themselves. That is what I call a campaign for hope and change!
March 23rd, 2009 at 8:58 am
A few notes…
The US Constitution declares “No ex post facto Law shall be passed.” The AIG retroactive bonus tax violates this principle. Since the libs are in power, we currently don’t have a Constitution.
And even though AIG violated NO LAWS… the eighth amendment is getting ignored as well… “nor excessive fines imposed”. Since the libs are in power, the Bill of Rights are meaningless.
The feds retroactive tax on bonuses=90%. Add in all taxes & some of these folks will pay over 100% in taxes.
If they’ll do it to AIG execs, they will do it to YOU!
Congress should pay an incompetence tax of 105% on their income.
March 24th, 2009 at 3:12 pm
I think that it is scary precedent for the government to interfere with contract law. They are doing it with AIG and they are talking about doing it with mortgages.
There is a legal mechanism that should have been used – bankruptcy. Company files for bankruptcy and then gets to renegociate contracts.
Instead, the gov butts in, hands them free money, makes a law allowing for these bonuses, then cries foul when the bonuses are made public.
And let’s be honest – who has ever worked for a poor person?
Our ancestors in the past looked at rich people, admired them for their work, and hoped to be them someday, with effort. Now, we look at rich people, and hate them for their achievement. How much longer until the guillotines come out?
And who will the go after next? Well, in DE, the new gov is going to increase the taxes for the rich people. Interestingly enough the definition of “rich” is also changing. Rich is any person or household that makes more that $60K a year (combined). Period. Doesn’t matter if it is dual income. Doesn’t matter if you are raising a baker’s dozen of kids. I have a feeling that many of the newly rich people in DE are surprised at their new-found success.