Little-Acorn
Well-Known Member
As described in many recent news reports, Democrats in Congress have been screaming in rage over the bonuses AIG is paying to its execs. They keep calling it "taxpayer money", forgetting that the bonuses were agreed upon more than a year ago and signed into legal contracts, before any taxpayer money was involved. The agreements were well known to Democrats who crafted the stimulus bill, though you wouldn't know it from their antics today.
Funniest part is, the biggest roadblock the Dems face in grabbing the bonus money, is an amendment put into the recently-signed stimulus bill by Democrat Chris Dodd, that specifically protected such long-ago-agreed bonuses from confiscation.
This is the same Chris Dodd who, back in the 1990s and 2000s, kept encouraging these companies to make the subprime loans that caused this whole mess, and kept insisting nothing was wrong even as more and more dire warnings were sounded. Now he's outraged and indignant at what these companies did... or so he says now.
Reminds one of the old Keystone Kops movies, where they kept tripping over each other, tumbling off speeding vehicles, etc. in vain and whacky efforts to get anything done.
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http://www.foxnews.com/politics/200...lawmakers-scramble-undo-protections-approved/
To Recover AIG Bonuses, Lawmakers Scramble to Undo Protections They Approved
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Though Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd is among those leading the charge on retrieving AIG bonuses, an amendment he added to the $787 billion stimulus bill last month created a roadblock to getting that money back.
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Congressional lawmakers are scrambling to think up creative ways to recover at least some of the $165 million in bonuses that bailed-out American International Group is paying executives -- but they could be their own worst enemy.
Though Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is among those leading the charge on retrieving the bonuses, an amendment he added to the $787 billion stimulus bill last month created a roadblock to getting that money back.
The amendment, meant to restrict executive pay for bailed-out banks, also included an exception for "contractually obligated bonuses agreed on or before Feb. 11, 2009."
This would seem to exempt the AIG bonuses that lawmakers and President Obama are looking to recover. Incidentally, Dodd is the largest single recipient of 2008 campaign donations from AIG, with $103,100, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Dodd amendment creates a "prohibition on what the president is now talking about," said Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the House minority whip. He also accused the administration of being in "disarray."
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)
Funniest part is, the biggest roadblock the Dems face in grabbing the bonus money, is an amendment put into the recently-signed stimulus bill by Democrat Chris Dodd, that specifically protected such long-ago-agreed bonuses from confiscation.
This is the same Chris Dodd who, back in the 1990s and 2000s, kept encouraging these companies to make the subprime loans that caused this whole mess, and kept insisting nothing was wrong even as more and more dire warnings were sounded. Now he's outraged and indignant at what these companies did... or so he says now.
Reminds one of the old Keystone Kops movies, where they kept tripping over each other, tumbling off speeding vehicles, etc. in vain and whacky efforts to get anything done.
---------------------------------------------
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/200...lawmakers-scramble-undo-protections-approved/
To Recover AIG Bonuses, Lawmakers Scramble to Undo Protections They Approved
Tuesday, March 17, 2009
Though Connecticut Democratic Sen. Chris Dodd is among those leading the charge on retrieving AIG bonuses, an amendment he added to the $787 billion stimulus bill last month created a roadblock to getting that money back.
--------------------------------
Congressional lawmakers are scrambling to think up creative ways to recover at least some of the $165 million in bonuses that bailed-out American International Group is paying executives -- but they could be their own worst enemy.
Though Sen. Chris Dodd, D-Conn., is among those leading the charge on retrieving the bonuses, an amendment he added to the $787 billion stimulus bill last month created a roadblock to getting that money back.
The amendment, meant to restrict executive pay for bailed-out banks, also included an exception for "contractually obligated bonuses agreed on or before Feb. 11, 2009."
This would seem to exempt the AIG bonuses that lawmakers and President Obama are looking to recover. Incidentally, Dodd is the largest single recipient of 2008 campaign donations from AIG, with $103,100, according to the Center for Responsive Politics.
The Dodd amendment creates a "prohibition on what the president is now talking about," said Virginia Rep. Eric Cantor, the House minority whip. He also accused the administration of being in "disarray."
(Full text of the article can be read at the above URL)