AIG Mess

I often try to wait and learn various aspects of an issue before commenting, and the AIG bonus fiasco is one that took a little more digging than usual. Here is the issue.

After being “bought out” by the taxpayer, we now own around 80% of the company. Of that money, millions were paid out in bonuses to the same people who had drove the company into the ground. At face value, sounds pretty ridiculous and my first knee-jerk reaction was hostility towards AIG. But wait-a-minute.

It turns out that these “bonuses” were actually contractual obligations made before the “bail out”. Taking it a step further, the same Congress now jumping up-and-down specifically authorized the bonuses. Then they deny knowing anything about putting that into the “bail out” legislation, and then admit that yes they did but it was because of pressure from the Obama Administration.

So here we are, finding out that the outrage from the President and Congress over the “bonuses” is nothing more than an act since they authorized the “bonuses”. The solution, Congress will now tax back retroactively 90% of the money they authorized for contractual bonuses. Yep, lets stick it to the rich folks.

There are some major problems with this. First, Congress just vaporized the meaning of a contract. Second, Congress just injected a tax as a penalty after-the-fact. Third, Congress and the Obama administration blatantly lied out of their teeth to the American people.

Can someone show me in the Constitution where any of this is or was authorized? Folks, we are in big trouble.