The bonus blowhards pull an Emily Litella
The AIG bonus-bashing, backside-covering sound and fury signifying nothing fizzles out. Curtains close on Kabuki Theater of Outrage…until the next act comes along:
A House panel endorsed a gentler approach Thursday to trying to stop bailed-out financial institutions from giving their employees big bonuses, as lawmakers indicated they were willing to put down their pitch forks and partner with industry to salvage the economy.
The bill directs Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner and financial regulators to set standards that would determine whether a bonus is “unreasonable or excessive.”
It would exempt institutions that agree to participate in a government-sponsored program aimed at buying up $1 trillion of bad debt, or “toxic assets,” sitting on the books of major banks. Geithner proposed the new investment program on Monday.
The House Financial Services Committee adopted the measure by voice vote, paving the way for a floor vote as early as next week.
The bill, sponsored by Democratic Reps. Alan Grayson of Florida and Jim Himes of Connecticut, was in stark contrast to the approach taken last week by lawmakers furious at insurance giant American International Group Inc. AIG distributed nearly $165 million in employee bonuses after the government committed more than $182 billion to keep the company afloat.
Fueled by populist anger, the House voted 328-93 to tax away 90 percent of any bonuses agreed to in 2008 and paid this year by AIG or other recipients of bailout money.
But that measure stalled in the Senate, as President Barack Obama warned not to “demonize” every investor. Geithner also said industry’s help would be needed to buy up the billions of dollars of sour mortgage securities, or “toxic assets,” sitting on the books of major banks.
“We cannot solve this crisis without making it possible for investors to take risks,” Geithner wrote in an editorial published in The Wall Street Journal.
Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., the panel’s chairman, said Democrats decided to exempt firms willing to participate in the effort because “we do want to encourage wide participation.”
(link)
Translation: Never mind.
***
Sen. James Inhofe weighs in on the root of the problem:
The reason many are seeking expedited consideration of an AIG bonus bill is clear enough—to cover up the past mistakes of the majority party and the Treasury Secretary. There was a provision buried deep in the Democrats’ stimulus bill that allowed these bonuses to be paid, and it was inserted at the behest of the Treasury secretary, Tim Geithner. And this gets us to the root of the problem: the bailout approach that Secretary Geithner epitomizes. There is a complete lack of any policy framework, explanation of principles, or coherent approach in dealing with our financial situation. I believe there is a lack of any transparency whatsoever and a seeming indifference to the taxpayers’ interests. The $700 billion bailout bill last October was Congressional ratification of Tim Geithner’s approach to big banks: bail them out.
Well, we are now trillions of dollars past that line and we’re beginning to comprehend the course on which that decision has set us. And I personally believe that trillions of dollars past that line, we’re no better off. I say enough. Tim Geithner’s bailout approach has taken us too far. Instead of Congress using the AIG bonus issue to cover up Tim Geithner’s mistakes on allowing those bonuses, we should take it as an opportunity to fundamentally reevaluate Geithner’s bailouts thus far and put an end to any more bailouts. With the revelations of how AIG is being used to funnel money to foreign banks to make them whole on bad investments at the expense of the US taxpayer, we need to put an end to the Geithner approach on bailouts. The taxpayer deserves no less. Under Tim Geithner, the $180 billion in taxpayer money AIG has received is being used to funnel money to AIG’s counterparties, mostly big investment banks and foreign banks.
In light of all of this, I introduced legislation yesterday to do more than deal with the bonuses. My legislation gets to the root of the problem, the $180 billion we’ve already given to AIG. It’s my understanding that the last $30 billion for AIG from TARP has been agreed to by Treasury, but has not been drawn down yet. My legislation would prevent that from going forward. The taxpayer has given AIG about $150 billion so far. I think it’s completely reasonable to say that once a single company gets $150 billion from the taxpayer, it should be cut off from getting more.
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OK, last week we were supposed to be outraged about AID Bonuses, the week before that we were supposed to be outraged about Rush Limbaugh. What’s this week outrage? Or is The Outrage Show pre-empted for the NCAA Finals?
Distraction successful, world fooled, MSM complicit, move along ’til further notice.
Its just the 5 minutes of hate.
Bingo.
Meanwhile Chris Dodd and Barney Frank are congratulating themselves on another dodged bullet.
Would you rather have your child grow up to be a politician or a stripper? Tough call.
And the next quasi-kabuki theatrics….
http://www.breitbart.com/article.php?id=D9759GG00&show_article=1
Yes the senate will now debate how #1 is determined in the BCS. Thank you arschlochs for debating this vital part of our American way of life!
The more I see, the more it looks like this “man” is not so stupid after all, or has someone seriously smarter pulling his strings. This looks more and more like a blatant attempt to get as much government control over our nation as possible before we the people can react.
Taxation without representation is only the beginning with this Administration, King George would have been proud … then again, so would Chairman Mao, Stalin, Lenin, Hitler and company.
Scary times indeed!
Close…. they are solving the BCS ‘National Championship’ problem.
Senate reviewing how college football picks No. 1
nail.head.
Hmmm, Barney Frank dancing nekkid, or a 20 yr old girl with daddy issues in the prime of her life…. do we get to vote?
THE HORROR!!!!
At least the stripper provides a service and earns her money honestly.
B I N G O ! !
THERE IS NO PLAN … every day brings a new knee jerk reaction to the latest bailout request, pork request, social engineering request and 1600 Pennsylvania requests driven by the latest White House and MSM polls …
I am waiting for the union/ACORN organized mob of “concerned citizens” to reappear at the homes of all of the AIG employees with signs and placards saying, “NEVERMIND” .
Waiting for Grassley to dash to a microphone and revise his earlier remarks in 5, 4, 3, ….
What’s all this I hear about violins on AIG?
That’s not tough at all. Strippers do honest work, make people happy and do what you pay them to.
That makes them a good deal more honorable and productive than our political class.
Monica Crowley reminds everyone it’s your money.
http://monicamemo.typepad.com/weblog/2009/03/a-fountain-in-the-sahara.html
It nice to know that I’m not the only American who doesn’t like $11,000,000,000 of taxpayer money going to a French bank.
OKAY, is this bass-ackwards??? Those companies that agree to take TARP $$ would be exempt from the government setting limits on executive compensation, but those that refuse…THEY will be punished!!!
BTW, I’m not in favor of the gov’t. limiting bonuses, but in the case of those companies that took TARP $$ (our $$), the gov’t. is now a shareholder/owner and has a say.
But Geithner’s plan seems to say that these companies would NOT have to limit exec comp, and would target those that are resisting the siren song of gov’t. tax $$!
Can it get any stranger than this?
Gotta love Inhofe.
Well, the Kabuki Theater of the AIG bonuses seems to be winding down (I suspect some union goons from government employees unions showed up at Barnie Franks office and told him to shut his mouth). Next up on this oh so entertaining melodrama: Can AIG (the linchpin in the Credit Default Swap scam that threatens worldwide financial collapse), be saved?
I don’t think so.
My question isn’t whether AIG can be saved … it’s how much money are we going to print and flush away before they finally admit AIG failed …
last week was to villify aig, because otherwise the senate and the administration would have to admit the aig deal was totally their fault. can’t have that, so aig is bad bad bad. now we want to spend more money, so nevermind.
I don’t see any end to the AIG bailout. The unions that pay for the politicans are going to expect their lackies in Congress to keep on bailing, no matter what the cost, even if takes down the U.S. Treasury and the economy. It’s called a death spiral.
As I posted on an earlier thread, this ACORN hired thug-thing was going to come back to bite them in the butt, and apparently I was correct!
Congress does do rash unconstitutional things when it acts in anger. The Patriot Act is a bigger example.
I still think it sounds like a bad idea.
Wartip #8, we’re reacting all over the place via Tea Parties, which is why the drive-bys refuse to cover them!
Look no further than the answer you seek… Amtrak
Despite the cuteness of “never mind”, the socialist sabre-rattlers in politics and in the media will never forget the so-called “populist anger” in this affair. And they’ll never let us forget it. It will be used as a weapon against some other person or some other entity at some later time. Probably sooner than we think. And we’ll be back where we started before “never mind”.
Yes, we are reacting but is it enough? How do we get on a United footing and begin taking preemptive action? Nobody can convince me that this much government control is not a blatant violation of our Constitution. Our Constitution does not GIVE us anything but limits what government can do to infringe upon our rights.
I have no doubt that our SCOTUS will be complicit in this takeover of our nation by these thugs. No matter what they may say or how they may attempt to justify it with International Law, it does not automatically become constitutional. This is a very direct and very real assault on everything that has made America great. The fact that so many Americans are willfully going along with it is further proof that there needs to be some serious changes in the electoral process but the government has to be completely restructured first.
I see very few Republicans and no democrats actively contesting any of this war on the American way of life and that scares me more than anything. The Tea Parties are a great beginning but like tea parties past, they are only a beginning. I do not personally fear what is coming to pass but I fear what it will mean for our children to learn first hand. This is going to get a whole lot worse before it ever gets any better.
lgm: So, are you saying that since this latest kerfuffle is not as unconstitutionsl as the PA, you won’t campaign just as hard to punish those who passed and signed it as you did those who passed and signed the PA?
Further, don’t tell me the PA has or ever will come close to grossly impacting our society like the socialistic tripe called a bailout plan will!
I was actually looking toward retiring in 5 years or so, now I will likely get to retire when they carry me out feet first! Then my kids and grandkids and their kids will still be paying for this long after you and I are dust.
In other words, the bonus will be unreasonable and excessive if a proscribed proportion isn’t “reinvested” into the campaign of, say, the Chairman of the House Financial Services Committee. Who could that be?
RabbidSquirrel … or the Postal Service
MtsEdge, I thik the program they are talking about is not TARP, but Geithner’s new plan to buy up toxic assets. Different beast.
By the way has anyone else heard something about how banks are using their TARP money not to start making loans again but to buy MORE of the toxic assets they supposedly need to be getting rid of, now that the gov’t and taxpayers will be buying them all up?
I can’t remember where I read that.
I always love people who can write in safety and bitch about something like the Patriot Act. Most ironic.
Please note that after five years in existence a Democrat controlled Congress, reaffirmed. Darn….wonder why?
Typically, Congresses and Presidents enact legislation in times of war that bend the Constitution. Bush enacted the Patriot Act in the war on terror. The democrats enacted the “bonus tax” in their war on freedom and capitalism.
Actually allowing you to escape a middle-aged, late-term, partial life abortion merits unconstitutionality in my book moron!
It’s been on the books for 8 years and no one’s made a serious attempt to over turn it, just whine about it. In fact the Obama administration is taking that ball and running with it in the biggest power grab since Stalin offed Lenin.
So as usual your point is pointless.
Because Bush was presocializing the country. The Democrats know a good power grab when they see one.