>Americans Fed Up With Dumb Lawmakers Vote For Term Limits, Empty Congress
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Geithner Vows to Recoup AIG Bonuses as Lawmakers Express Fury
It’s Not With AIG That Americans Are Fed Up — We’re Fed Up With Congress! Why Don’t Lawmakers Get It?
Americans arise! Let’s Get a Term Limits petition going and throw out the entire Congress!
THE STORY: March 18 — Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told congressional leaders the U.S. will recoup executive bonuses paid by American International Group Inc. as outraged lawmakers raced to take back such payments from all companies getting federal bailouts.
Geithner, who has come under fire from Congress over the AIG payments, said in a letter to lawmakers last night the government will recover the money by requiring it be repaid from company operations and deducting the amount from the next $30 billion in aid being provided to the insurer.
DON WHITE: In selectively reducing the AIG bailout by the amounts of the bonuses, the question arises: If the complete $170 billion was needed — as said by AIG and as approved by Congress (if you can believe Congress did their oversight job and due diligence) — then why would you want to slow the come-back of the economy by the amount of the bonuses? It makes no sense. We have heard reports that those who got the bonuses have already left AIG, so in essence the bonuses do no good for the future. We know all the brohaha over bonuses will make it harder for AIG to hire top people because any new guys won’t get the lavish bonuses, but AIG’s competition, CityBank and others, still give those kinds of bonuses. The best people, naturally, will gravitate to the most money, which isn’t AIG, now 80% owned by Uncle Sam.
THE STORY: The senior members of the Senate Finance Committee from both parties proposed taxes totaling 70 percent on bonuses at AIG and other companies getting federal money during the U.S. financial meltdown. House Speaker Nancy Pelosi directed committees there to draft several alternatives and said her chamber may consider a bill as early as this week. Other lawmakers introduced their own plans.
DON WHITE: All of this 70% tax effort is self-defeating. Who’s going to want to work for AIG in the future? Lawmakers who have this mentality are sealing the doom for AIG, the company we, the people, own. Shouldn’t we be making it easier for AIG to get the top people to compete with Bank of America and other financial firms which still give big bonuses and whose bonuses are not subject to this kind of balony pile-on tax treatment? Second, these lawmakers who actually think once in a while are stupid. They are dreaming up ways to help AIG fail, which is wrongheaded. Better that lawmakers don’t think at all than to dream up fantasies for the private enterprise system, about which they know absolutely nothing.
THE STORY: “Millions lost their jobs; it’s an outrage that the people who somewhat caused this problem are now paying themselves bonuses,” Senate Finance Chairman Max Baucus, a Montana Democrat, said yesterday in Washington. He and ranking Republican Chuck Grassley of Iowa also proposed limiting some forms of deferred compensation to $1 million at companies getting bailout funds.
DON WHITE: Better still, why don’t we, the people, limit our lawmakers? Wlhy don’t we shout to them: NO MORE BAILOUTS PERIOD! Americans are angry and upset with AIG, but they should be more upset with Congress. We should pass term limits — get a petition going and bypass Congress — and get rid of all members of Congress, Democrats and Republicans alike. They are all incompetent frauds and don’t deserve to be in Washington. The above about Max Baucus and Chuck Grassley is off center. We shouldn’t be writing bills that limit bonuses at all. More importantly, such talk seems to be setting the stage for further bailouts.
STOP THAT NOTION NOW! DOESN’T CONGRESS GET IT? AMERICA ISN’T FED UP WITH AIG IT’S FED UP WITH CONGRESS. This angst against AIG is all a smoke screen. Baucus and Grassley — and all Democrats and Republicans — are all wrong. BAILOUTS BE GONE is my mantra. NO MORE BAILOUTS, PERIOD! LET’S HAVE TERM LIMITS FOR CONGRESS! LET’S STOP THE STUPIDITY THAT STARTS WITH THE CURRENT CROP OF DEMOCRATS AND REPUBLICANS.
