Shelby assails Geithner's handling of AIG bonuses

[HARDCORE]

3-17-2009

Dear Mr. President et al:

With all due respect, and in regard to the piece below, giving an additional $30 Billion Dollars, even with so-called strings attached to AIG or any of the other financial rapist in our midst [Opinion] is an insult to each and every man, woman and child in “OUR NATION”, past, present and future!

The only strings, again in my opinion, that these beast deserve are made of strong hemp and fastened securely around their uncaring necks!! And if this sounds crass or crude, then I invite you to reverse rolls and Walk the Walk of those whom these me-ist bonvivants have taken for a one way ride!

As a “Die-Hard Independent”, I have faith in your intentions Mr. President, but this move is “No Remedy At All” and is akin to “Throwing Good Money After Bad!” Nor is it the kind of “CHANGE” that “We The People” envisioned! It amounts to nothing more than an anemic slap upon the wrist, and business as usual!

Now I have no problem with any person getting rich, legally and ethically, even though I myself am virtually a pauper! But what these bums did (and are still doing) is a slap in the face to every American who ever lived!! It is also, in my humble opinion, proof that “The Robber Barons Still Live - Unchecked and Uncontrolled!”

These Unpatriotic Individuals deserve as a few U.S, Senators have just implied, to be hung in the execution yard of the “Old Yuma State Penitentiary!” And to grant these “Modern Day Scrooges” - Individuals Who Would Even Make Jesse James Green With Envy, yet another $30 Billion in tax payer money, is akin (in my view) to giving Hitler a posthumous Nobel Peace Prize. It is also not conducive to the re-election ambitions of those who support this legalized theft, as well as this slight to our National Honor, again in my most humble opinion!?

I also doubt seriously if much or if any of this “Bailout Fortune” will ever find its way to its intended purpose? And in this respect, and for the survival of our Country, I sincerely hope that I am wrong….

VERITAS (The Truth, As I See It!?)
__________________________________________________ ___________
http://www3.signonsandiego.com/stori...omment-7288155

Shelby assails Geithner's handling of AIG bonuses
By PHILLIP ELLIOT, The Associated Press

March 17, 2009
WASHINGTON — The top Republican on the Senate Banking Committee is questioning whether Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner responded appropriately to American Insurance Group's payment of millions in executive bonuses.
Sen. Richard Shelby says that $165 million in bonuses have already been paid out by AIG and asks, "Will we ever get the money back."
The Alabama Republican, interviewed Tuesday on CBS's "The Early Show," stopped short of calling for Geithner's resignation. But he did say: "What I want to ask, where was the secretary of the Treasury? Where was Treasury before this money was paid out? Why did not Treasury step in and let the American people know, just try to block it."
The White House says it's looking at restrictions on some $30 billion in taxpayers' money approved to help American International Group as the administration tries to reclaim or block millions of dollars in bonuses the struggling company awarded executives.
President Barack Obama and his top aides expressed outrage at reports that AIG went ahead with $165 million in bonuses even though the company received more than $170 billion in federal rescue money. Obama directed Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to see whether there was any way to retrieve or stop the bonus money – a move designed as much for public relations as for public policy.
"I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?" Obama said Monday in announcing a plan to help small businesses.
The financial bailout program remains politically unpopular and has been a drag on Obama's new presidency, even though the plan began under his predecessor, President George W. Bush. The White House is aware of the nation's bailout fatigue; hundreds of billions of taxpayer dollars have gone to prop up financial institutions that made poor decisions, while many others who have done no wrong have paid the price.
News that AIG still needs billions in taxpayer dollars to prevent a collapse did little to build public confidence, Obama aides acknowledged. Seeking to turn the public tide, White House spokesman Robert Gibbs aggressively criticized AIG and said administration officials were working to put strict limits on the next $30 billion installment bound for the company.
"Treasury has instruments that can address the excessive retention bonuses, and add provisions to ensure that taxpayers are made whole," Gibbs said.
The AIG news overshadowed what Obama's aides had hoped to spend the first part of the week discussing: billions of dollars to help the nation's small businesses in the hopes of getting credit flowing again. Obama heaped praise on the little guys of American industry, often overshadowed in the blitz of government bailouts.
Obama's latest plan allows the government to spend up to $15 billion to buy the small-business loans that are now choking community banks and lenders. That, in turn, could allow those banks to start lending money again to small companies to invest, pay bills and stay afloat.
"You deserve a chance. America needs you to have a chance," Obama said in an appeal to all those who run small businesses or hope to one day.
On Capitol Hill, House Republican leader John Boehner was unmoved. He called Obama's White House event "simply an attempt to provide political cover for the job-killing burden the president's budget would place on our nation's small businesses." The House Republican whip, Eric Cantor of Virginia, said Obama's plan was welcome, but he predicted it would affect only a small portion of the loan market for small businesses, leaving others and their workers "in the cold."
Two months into office, Obama's job approval rating is 61 percent, according to Gallup polling. That number has been relatively stable so far this month but has dropped from the 68 percent when the president took office. The major factor has been a decline in support among Republicans, from 41 percent to 26 percent.
A separate poll out Monday by the Pew Research Center put Obama's approval at 59 percent, slipping from 64 percent last month. The Pew poll found that a growing number of Americans see him as listening more to the liberals than to the moderates in the Democratic Party.

[darrels joy]

Stimulus Explicitly Protects Bonuses Obama Now





Hey Barry, this was your bag of manure. Maybe if you had read the thing before you signed it, you wouldn't have to pretend that AIG somehow violated your law.
From But As For Me.

[W]e discovered that Obama granted AIG a free legal pass to give high bonuses because of the following stipulation in Obama’s stimulus bill he personally orchestrated and signed into law: From page H1412 of the Final Stimulus Bill, “SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:
“(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.”

This amendment provides an exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009, which exempts the very AIG bonuses Obama is condemning every single chance he gets. The amendment is in the final version and is law.

So all of Obama's bleating and faux anger about the bonuses appears to be rooted in regret over either his own incompetence or getting caught in a poltical sh*t-storm of his own making. Or both.

Either way it makes his statement from yesterday ring a little hollow now.

"This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed," Obama told a group of small business owners.
"I mean, how do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"

Mr. President, they justify it by following your law.

http://www.examiner.com/x-2304-DC-Re...ma-Now-Laments

[phuloi]

Not only "bleating and faux anger " from B Hussein Obama, but the congress that slipped the whole bonus provision into the Porkulus bill in closed session,behind locked doors in the middle of the night while we fools slept are beating there own chests in a bombastic display of arrogance while discrediting and demeaning the CEO of AIG, who was not even at AIG at the time they went to Congress for help!. Liddy was brought on board when the Congress gave them the bailout as an overseer to try and right the ship.
This whole theater is nothing but a freaking smoke screen. When and IF the truth ever be told Bawney Fwank and Chris Dodd will have found their tit in the wringer, but I won`t hold my breath. I AM PISSED!