Liberal Commentators Disappointed with, GOP Pounces Upon White House Aides’ Remarks on AIG Bonuses

With such as massive bill there was bound to be some mis-steps. Republicans will continue to poke at every single one to stir mass hysteria. That is their only argument because their solution to fix the economy is nowhere to be found…

Pretty good tactic to try and separate Obama from the words of his staff. Unfortunately, the staff is Obama, they represent him. Can’t rightly complain about the words of his chief advisors and say Obama is divergent. How many times did the country have to endure comments about Karl Rove puppeteering Bush, does the same not apply to Rhaum Emanual?
Personally, I think the administration is in disaray, further proof that you can’t run the country like you run a campaign.

So the far left bloggers are working themselves up into a lather about how AIG spent 0.09% of their bailout loan, while Obama’s aides are focussed on the other 99.91% and the much more threatening economic structural problems.
This is suppose to be news? The only news is now Republicans too seem to be raging that we need full nationalization, control of AIG down to the last 0.01% of spending. Idiotic far-left social tantrums over fairness of the sort that bred absurdities like communism are suppose to be what Republicans stand against.

KR:”Thats a Republican solution, now if they would have only said it in September of 2008 instead of going down the bailout road. ”
Err, that’s full nationalization. Not exactly the Republican’s solution (cut taxes!!) at all.

Think that Mr. Axelrod is the one out of touch!
Just a few questions:
* When will Team Obama start checking our nominees before calling a crowd and announcing their nominations, then finding out they are tax cheats>
* When will Team Obama start slowing down the legislative process to allow folks to read legislation before it is signed into law (to wit, the Stimulus Bill containing bonuses for AIG retention)?
*When will Team Obama do their homework on MAJOR INTERNATIONAL POLICIES LIKE GITMO, before they have the new attorney general (ERIC HOLDER) announce that some prisoners MAY have to be released in the US?
* When will Team Obama do their homework on health care for veterans before making a total fool of themselves as they did this week — when they suggested that war wounded vets could buy their own PRIVATE HEALTH CARE POLICIES to cover their war wounds?
* When will Team Obama announce that President Obama — being the second highest recipient of AIG contributions in 2008 — will return the $101,000+ he received?
Yes, Mr. Axelrod, there are more than a few ‘chatter class’ folks sitting around the kitchen table keeping book on what you promised, and now, WHAT YOU ARE NOT DELIVERING!

It’s no wonder they want this to go away.
If Obama had not signed that rediculous stimulus bill there would be no bonuses.
He either read the bonus amendment and thought people wouldn’t care or signed the bill w/out reading it.
Either way Obama is incompetent.
Obama and everyone that signed that bill should pay back the bonus money not AIG who had a contract.

THE ‘FIRE, READY, AIM’ OBAMA TEAM! (Team Obama in Action)
*They select folks for critical positions and jobs before checking to see if they are qualified!
*They rush through billions of dollars in ‘Stimulus’ legislations without knowing what they are signing (to wit, AIG retention bonuses).
*The President talks down business and the stock market until he is dressed down by the CEO of CITI (Mr. Parsons), and the following day, the skies are much brighter.
*On March 16, the President advises major veteran organizations that he is thinking about causing veterans with war wounds to obtain their own private health insurance.
Based on the serious impacts this would have had on veterans and the potential of the volunteer force – largely the out cry (of total disbelief) from veterans, the President backed down on March 18!
*One of President Obama’s first major international policy changes was to CLOSE GITMO! On March 18, Attorney General Eric Holder announced that some of those prisoners might be released in the US. Yes folks – this is the same Eric Holder who called citizens of the US ‘COWARDS’ last month. Guess he is now going to give us all a test!!!!
—-and today, it appears that many of the democrats are all in a circle, with loaded pistols, firing at each other (Dodd vs Whitehouse and Geithner), and fighting over mics!
WHAT WILL BE THE NEXT FUMBLE BUM??? Please get Obama a teleprompter that will give him the correct answers to issues!!!!
If Mr. Axlerod is in charge, he better take charge real quick. Has he looked at recent polls? It may be super that Obama signed the book deal before entering the Whitehouse. He may need the income after the first four years!
The first 60 days ARE A BIG DISAPPOINTMENT!

I just had lunch with some co-workers and the subject of discussion was AIG and bonues. You better believe it, every tax payer is p—-d off about this mess. And not likely to forget it come the 2010 elections.

Stupid Barney Frank. The deeply rooted anger is at you for propping up these companies to begin with. If you hadn’t done it, we wouldn’t have to be a witness to your faux outrage over something you knew was contractual before you took it over.
Rule of Law means -
1. laws are certain and known in advance.
2. laws envision no particular outcome except that of allowing people to peaceably pursue their own objective.
3. laws are equally applied to everyone, including government officials.
The government throws out the rule of law and disregards contracts, you no longer have a republic. You have anarchy and tyranny.
“The moment the idea is admitted into society that property is not as sacred as the laws of God, and that there is not a force of law and public justice to protect it, anarchy and tyranny commence. If ‘Thou shalt not covet’ and ‘Thou shalt not steal’ were not commandments from Heaven, they must be made inviolable precepts in every society before it can be civilized or made free.” John Adams

“Err, that’s full nationalization. Not exactly the Republican’s solution (cut taxes!!) at all.”
Breaking up and selling off isn’t nationalization. Bailout buying IS nationalization. Government now owns 80% of AIG, can’t get more nationalized than that.
I was personally on the side of a number of republicans who voted against the bailout back in September, and voted against the recent bailouts. It needs to be broken up and sold off, with the Attorney General prosecuting the really big thiefs like George Soros and Edward Lampert. They’ve been making hundreds of millions per year on this mess.

“News commentator just put these bonuses in perspective….if the bail out were $100 the bonuses amount to .10 cents of that 100….shouldn’t we be more concerned with how the govt is dishing this money out…”
That’s all well and good, except the President created this rage by slamming CEO bonuses for months. If the people are so concentrated on it, whos to blame?

samhiguchi:”shouldn’t we be more concerned with how the govt is dishing this money out…how they are “leaving out” provisions for bonuses”
What do you mean leaving out provisions for bonuses? They explicitly ban them. The furor is that their was a clause inserted permitting the payment of salary already promised under a legal completed contract.
FUTURE PAYMENTS OF THIS SIZE ARE EXPLICITLY BANNED.
If you bothered to read the clause the “Dodd exemption” is on you’d know this. Are you uninformed or lying?

republicans are not important – they created this mess and there is no way that they can deny it. The party of lincoln – is over – rush, sarah, mitt, eric etc. of no consequence.

So… Americans don’t care about the AIG bonuses that Obama is making a big show of being indignant about, even though those bonuses are part of the bill he signed that was rushed through Congress because otherwise the economy was going to be destroyed, except now it turns out the economy is doing better than we thought. Oh, and now Congress wants to to impose a 90% tax on the bonuses they themselves approved.
And it’s all the other guys’ fault.

“Who cares what Karl Rove said. What matters is what Bush says.”
Blamo. Couldn’t resist, just had to turn that around.

I’m furious over the bonuses to AIG execs but there is no way a 90% tax levied on a select group of citizens is constitutional.

Axelrod and Rahm are saying what they want to be true, now that it’s obvious the administration protected the bonuses in the stimulus bill.
I don’t know why Obama chose to be outraged about the bonuses, but choose he did. Now, because he’s decided to stoke that anger, he’s going to be asked to sign a law imposing confiscatory taxes on bonuses his administration approved.

Obama says Washington is in a tizzy over AIG, Axelrod says we don’t care.
They want us to be mad at AIG who had legal contracts to get a bonus.
A bonus Obama agreed to give them by signing the stimulus bill.
The bill he rushed through so no one could read it–not even him.
We should be angry with Obama–he signed the bill.

These comments are just as stupid as Schumer saying we don’t care about earmarks.
They should be specific and say Obama supporters don’t care about AIG and earmarks.
Obama is going to meet all their needs so why should they care?

A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution.
Retroactively taxing just this guys may not officially be a crime, but it’s certainly played as such, and with no trial. I think it should go to court as to whether or not Congress can do this at all to specifically target CEO’s/Execs with taxes.

The taxation policy could be aimed at any group:
Engineers
Truck Drivers
Non-union Construction Workers
Waiters in High Tip Establishments
Insert your job and wonder when you will be part of the next villified group.

“So as majority shareholders, we can do what we want with our own investments and who received them. It’s our contract.”
Contract law is one of the oldest laws in the books in our country. If the government bashes up contracts without going through the legal process to do so, you let the government act above the law. I am guessing you would not have been an advocate of that a year ago.

bailey:”These comments are just as stupid as Schumer saying we don’t care about earmarks.”
If Americans cared about earmarks, then they wouldn’t exist. Congresscritters of both parties use them to get re-elected. They – absolutely no debate – work. People only care about everyone ELSE’S earmarks.
(I don’t much care about earmarks as a budgetary vehicle as they seem pretty clearly part of Congress’s constitutional power. I do car about waste. They are NOT necessarily the same thing.)

jhw:certainly no more than Obama could have reviewed in less than a day after his staff marked it up. Why do you think he did not read it?
=========
Do you think he read it AND decided to be publicly outraged that AIG paid bonuses in accordance with the law he signed?

I am much more concerned about the economy as a whole and about jobs being created than about the silliness Republicans and commentators (media, in general) seem bent on spewing. If you’re doing nothing about the problems, i.e. Republicans in Congress, then you can’t make mistakes. I will excuse many mistakes so long as the Obama administration is TRYING to fix the mess left behind by the previous moronic administration.

“These comments are just as stupid as Schumer saying we don’t care about earmarks.”
I noticed the earmarks screams from the right died down awfully quick when 6 of the top 10 porkers were found to be Republicans.

“If Americans cared about earmarks, then they wouldn’t exist. Congresscritters of both parties use them to get re-elected. They – absolutely no debate – work. People only care about everyone ELSE’S earmarks.”
There was a fantastic political cartoon this week with two panels
One had a smiling guy with a bundle in his hands labeled bacon under the headline My Congressman.
The other panel had a guy with devil horns who appeared to be in hell with a package labeled pork in his hands under the headline Your Congressman.

Posted by: hang | Mar 19, 2009 4:22:54 PM
Exactly WHAT has Obama done to fix what’s wrong, i.e. banking and the markets?
That’s rhetorical.
He’s done nothing. Absolutely nothing.

If you’re doing nothing about the problems, i.e. Republicans in Congress, then you can’t make mistakes. I will excuse many mistakes so long as the Obama administration is TRYING to fix the mess left behind by the previous moronic administration.
Posted by: hang | Mar 19, 2009 4:22:54 PM
_________________________________________
Please save us the talking points. Sorry, saying “no” to bad policies isn’t doing nothing, it’s actually an attempt to keep our President from taking this country from recession to complete economic ruin. “Trying” to do something is a bad thing if what you are doing has already been proven to fail in other countries, as well as during our own depression. It’s like this. Your car is leaking oil …. doing nothing is better than removing the oil plug! Obama is removing the oil plug!

When is Obama going to leave the campaign trail or is he just starting to campaign for 2012.

Maybe the AIG bonuses are rich peoples’ way of offsetting things like Medicare and Welfare fraud.

Maybee:”Obama’s treasury department put it in there, jhw. Dodd says they forced it on him.
And no, it really isn’t his job to call out executives. Especially if he understands why they did what they did.”
The treasury department CANNOT WRITE LEGISLATION. They may have supported it, but it is impossible that they put it in. Although this has NOTHING TO DO WITH MY POINT…
It is BAD LAW to write legislation that is unclear and likely to result in years of legal battles. It is the job of the administration to catch issues like this – no president runs the country single-handedly.
And the president’s ability to use the bully pulpit for social commentary – from slavery to drinking to drug use – has been well established for generations. Sorry if reality doesn’t agree with you.

WE MUST STOP THE PASSAGE OF HR1388…THE SO CALLED GIVE ACT WHICH IS THE NATIONAL MANDATORY SERVICE ACT..WE MUST STOP ANY VERSION IN THE SENATE…WE MUST.

It is BAD LAW to write legislation that is unclear and likely to result in years of legal battles. It is the job of the administration to catch issues like this – no president runs the country single-handedly.
===
Yeah. So the Treasury Department forced Dodd to write that into the legislation. As I said.
I agree a President can use a bully pulpit. One would hope he would use it to inform rather than inflame, however, which is what he’s done with the bonus outrage and the calling out of executives.
What if you woke up tomorrow to find your firm has gotten federal funding, and President Obama is just outraged at your salary? Even though you and your company had agreed to your salary sometime last year?
Would you feel like a bad guy? Or would you want the President of the United States to dial it down a notch?

Why don’t the congressmen who received bribe/donations from these same companies have to return them to the Treasury? Why should the congressmen get to keep these ‘bonuses’ from people who get Federal bailout funding. I think they should all return them – for any contributions received for the past 5 years.

I’d like to know if members of Congress will return that $93,000 spending money they voted themselves.

Those DVD’s President Genius sent to Gordon Brown?
They’re NTSC.
ROFLMAO

drjohn:”HR 1388 can permit government to “require” 3 years of ‘volunteer” service.”
Sorry, I need a bit more than one word quotes to believe any of your fantasy world hysterics. Surely you can quote the passage requiring this mandatory service (in the so-scary peace/Ameri corps).

Yeah.
And there’s nothing in the stimulus package about AIG keeping bonuses either.

C’mon drjohn name the section that has 3 years of mandatory service.

“including a focus on energy conservation, environmental stewardship or conservation, infrastructure improvement, urban and rural development, or disaster preparedness needs’;
“urban development”
Hmmm
This sounds a lot like the National Guard.
Except it will be controlled by ACORN.

I(I speak for myself and friends/associates) am really angry at the direction that BO and congress is taking this country. The huge spending, the push to socialize healthcare, cap and trade, immigration…and the worst offense is the sheer lies told by these creeps in congress and the WH about THEIR involvement in all of this “financial crisis”…THEY caused it and now they act like they can solve it by robbing us of our hard earned savings. Our retirement, 529′s , all GONE ! A life of savings, gone !!
And THEY caused this….alone.
Yes we’re pissed. And not at the bonuses. We’re pissed at the thieves in office. Now our children and grandchildren will be strapped with this debt. Government, step aside and let us live our lives in peace.

Posted by: Ryan C | Mar 19, 2009 5:48:52 PM
ACORN members have committed fraud all over the country.

“From the Misc. section, #6104: (6) Whether a workable, fair, and reasonable mandatory service requirement for all able young people could be developed, and how such a requirement could be implemented in a manner that would strengthen the social fabric of the Nation and overcome civic challenges by bringing together people from diverse economic, ethnic, and educational backgrounds.”
Hmmmm
MANDATORY
Interesting, eh, Ryan?

The 165 million in bonuses are absolutly nothing in comparison to the hundreds of Billions Congress and the White house just dumped down the toilet with the stimulus and the latest omnibus spending bill. They didn’t deserve their bonuses but they aren’t close to the waste in pork and pay back. You should start looking at who the REAL CRIMINALS are. We were sold down the river by government and most people have no clue of the price we’re going to pay.

Posted by: Philip V. | Mar 19, 2009 6:04:22 PM
Yup.
And they’re all Democrats.

Posted by: Ryan C | Mar 19, 2009 6:05:20 PM
Democrats will vote for bonuses.
And then want to know how it happened.
Kinda like now.

“‘(1) Preparation of a national service plan for the State that–
‘(B) covers a 3-year period, the beginning of which may be set by the State;”
ROFLMAO!
The selective quoting to make this scary is hilarious.
Here’s the full section.
SEC. 1605. STATE COMMISSIONS ON NATIONAL AND COMMUNITY SERVICE.
Section 178 (42 U.S.C. 12638) is amended–
(1) in subsection (c)(1), by adding at the end the following:
J) A representative of the volunteer sector.’;
(2) in subsection (c)(3), by striking `, unless the State permits the representative to serve as a voting member of the State Commission or alternative administrative entity’;
(3) by striking subsection (e)(1) and inserting the following:
(1) Preparation of a national service plan for the State that–
(A) is developed through an open and public process (such as through regional forums, hearings, and other means) that provides for maximum participation and input from companies, organizations, and public agencies using service and volunteerism as a strategy to meet critical community needs, including programs funded under the national service laws;
(B) covers a 3-year period, the beginning of which may be set by the State;
(C) is subject to approval by the chief executive officer of the State;
(D) includes measurable goals and outcomes for the State consistent with those for national service programs as described in section 179(a)(1)(A);
(E) ensures outreach to diverse community-based agencies that serve under-represented populations, by using established networks and registries at the State level, or establishing such networks and registries;
(F) provides for effective coordination of funding applications submitted by the State and others within the State under the national service laws;
(G) is updated annually, reflecting changes in practices and policies that will improve the coordination and effectiveness of Federal, State, and local resources for service and volunteerism within the State; and
(H) contains such information as the State Commission considers to be appropriate or as the Corporation may require.
So basically the new law calls for the States to come up with their own plans for increasing national service and for those plans to cover a 3 year period.
From that drjohn derived that we will now all have to serve 3 years mandatory national service.

GIVE ACT
H.R. 1388 The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act
House expected to vote Tuesday, March 17
Senators Edward M. Kennedy and Orrin Hatch–with support from 19 other Senators, both Republican and Democratic–have been working hard to pass the Serve America Act. On March 10, the Senate Health, Education, Labor and Pensions (HELP) Committee held a hearing to discuss the “Next Generation of Service”.
The House Committee on Education & Labor passed the GIVE Act (H.R. 1388), the House companion bill to the Serve America Act (S. 277) with strong bipartisan support. On Tuesday, March 17 the full House will vote on the legislation.

13 Banks and private firms that received billions in taxpayer dollars owe the IRS more than $200 MILLION dollars in overdue federal taxes.
This tells me more about our incompetent government, than it does these companies.

“Tea parties are popping up, not because of the bonuses, because we are SICK and TIRED of working our butts off to succeed in this world and keep our promises”
Teabaggers for the rich!

“So a group should be judged by the actions of individuals in the group? ”
Sure. What’s the difference between Acorn and American Insurance Group (AIG)?

‘Apparently Bush approved the bonuses back in APRIL and left them as a POISON PILL for Obama. This is already being played as “the first genuine full-blown crisis of the Obama administration” and pundits are calling for Obama’s picks — particularly Geithner — to be fired.
This stinks of a manufactured crisis, one designed specifically to force Obama to start over and make even more concessions in back-room negotiations involving much “bipartisanship”

“Apparently Bush approved the bonuses back in APRIL and left them as a POISON PILL for Obama.”
—————————————
Not likely. The primaries weren’t even finished in April of 2008.

Obama administration special envoy Richard Holbooke was on the AIG Board of Directors. I wonder if he approved these bonuses. Who knows- maybe he got a bonus for keeping quiet.

GIVE ACT
H.R. 1388 The Generations Invigorating Volunteerism and Education (GIVE) Act
House expected to vote Tuesday, March 17
From the CONGRESSIONAL BUDGET OFFICE
COST ESTIMATE:
Assuming appropriation of the estimated amounts, CBO estimates that implementing the bill would cost $481 million in 2010 and about $6 billion over the 2010-2014 period.
CBO estimates that over the 2010-2014 period another $2.4 billion
would be needed to fund education awards for AmeriCorps participants. Assuming the appropriation of those sums, CBO estimates outlays would increase by $0.5 billion over the five-year period (with significant additional outlays in subsequent years).
CBO also estimates that over the 2010-2014 period, the bill would authorize the appropriation of funds for:
• Administrative expenses, including support to state service commissions and
evaluation of programs ($0.6 billion),
• Various demonstration programs ($0.2 billion),
• Training and technical assistance programs ($150 million), and
• A new Congressional Commission on Civic Service ($1 million).
In total, CBO estimates that outlays would rise by $0.8 billion over the next five years, assuming appropriation of the estimated amounts.
Programs funded under NCSA and DVSA received appropriations of $1.1 billion for fiscal year 2009, including $200 million in funding from the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009.
This seems a pretty steep price to pay for “volunteerism.” But, what the heck, everybody knows taxpayers’ pockets are bottomless. We’ve been known to give till it hurts.

Taxes are evil, but some Americans (myself included) need to go spend some time in a country that lacks the natural resources to even equip its citizens with a taxable income.
Relatively speaking, are there really any poor people in America?

This crisis will steel the North American character. Let the suffering and adversity come. Let it pummel us. We’ll be better for it in the end.
This continent has been too rich for too long. Wealth has ruined a great people.
Plato was right: It’s best to be neither poor nor rich. For a people to be great, it must be perennially hungry and yet able to feed itself through ingenious labor.

We are really fighting over 11 trillion dollar deficit legacy Bush and his supporters left all Americans. The cost to fix the mess is included and I bet its a lot higher. War wounded etc.