Correct me if I am wrong

[YardleyLabs]

That's the great thing about being a democrat. Any law you wrote last month that you don't like you can just write another one over it. They like to have it both ways.

Somebody add up all the money the democrats took in as campaign contributions last year from AIG...Dear Leader included. Maybe we should tax those campaign contributions at the 95% rate.

The answer is that over the last 18 years AIG has made substantial contributions that were split 50/50 between both parties. Large corporations seldom leave anything to chance. In any particular year you can assume that the party leading in the election will receive the majority of corporate donations but that the losing party will still receive a lot.

[road kill]

The answer is that over the last 18 years AIG has made substantial contributions that were split 50/50 between both parties. Large corporations seldom leave anything to chance. In any particular year you can assume that the party leading in the election will receive the majority of corporate donations but that the losing party will still receive a lot.

It's actually 66% / 33% Democrats, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good post!!

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009...ayouts-we.html

[YardleyLabs]

It's actually 66% / 33% Democrats, but hey, don't let the facts get in the way of a good post!!

http://www.opensecrets.org/news/2009...ayouts-we.html

There server is down or I would give you the reference. Howver, the 66/34 split was last year. The 18 year total which they also cite is 50/50.

[Matt McKenzie]

It's already started. Eleven AIG executives have resigned so far. Who's going to take those jobs with the current limits to compensation delineated by TARP and the ridiculous media frenzy over bonuses? Nobody with a brain. That will certainly help AIG get back on track.

Keep on focusing on Corporate bonuses and private jets. That way you don't have time to be outraged by the gross disregard for the law by our elected officials.

[Franco]

AIG is done, you can stick a fork in them. No way they will survive the liberal media frenzy over the bonuses.

How many tax payer billions have been wasted by our government attempting to bail them out? Our gooberment is destroying them in the media for AIG executing a plan approved by the Obomo administration!

This country will not survive four years of Obomo and his idiots.

[badbullgator]

It will be interesting to hear how AIG defends themselves today. I listened to a program yesterday on ,gulp, NPR (my lefty comrade’s choice, not mine) and they were talking to someone from AIG (current or former, I don’t remember) and wow did he stumble when asked why these folks should get such big bonuses when they, as a company, did such a poor job. His first answer was that companies like AIG needed the “talent” that these people possessed. The host ,and this kind of surprised me, pushed and asked how much “talent” that really was in light of the fact that they had lost 68 billion dollars in the last quarter. The guy went on to change his tune and state that it was not so much talent as the fact that these are jobs that you and I can’t fill because we don’t understand or “speak the language” of derivatives and such. The host pressed even further in asking if he thought that these people actually understood it being that they lost so much money and had to have a bailout to survive. He really could not provide a good response to that and that was the end of the interview.
My point is that I agree the government should not be chasing the people who got the bonuses and trying to make rules to tax them for the money. That is bad any way you slice it. I do not feel, however, that in this case these folks that are leaving are irreplaceable or worth retaining. AIG has done enough to hurt itself and I cannot place all of the blame on the goberment. AIG could have done the right thing and restructured their contracts. I don’t care who you are or how much you make, there comes a time when you do the right thing and hope for payback down the line in better times. Public image is worth as much as any of these guys leaving AIG. By not doing what is perceived to be right AIG may have dealt itself a knockout punch. People and businesses that can will leave AIG like urine flowing from a sleeping drunk in an alley. The black eye that AIG has given itself is going to hurt far worse than what the government is doing to them. Public image is everything
I don’t care if executives fly in corporate jest or get huge bonuses IF, and this is a BIG IF, the company is making their OWN money, is not owned by the taxpayer, is not STILL LOOSING MONEY, and is not asking for BILLIONS of dollars more from us. When the government has to save your ass to keep your doors open all bets are off as far as this stuff goes. The only reason the government has/may have a say in this is because it is OUR money and that is where the difference lies. If McDonalds want to give bonuses and fly around in corporate jet, more power to them and the government should have no say in it. If GM, AIG et al want our money then they must spend it wisely. That said no stipulations were put on the money AIG paid out. That was stupid and done with little to no forethought. So we agree that the government should not be trying to get it back, we apparently disagree that these folks deserve bonuses or to even keep their jobs. Sorry but I saw a report yesterday that said 70+ people got a million dollars or more in bonus. I just don’t personally see why any company who is still dying and lost as much money as they have can justify giving anyone working for them a million dollars in bonus. Who is responsible for their losses? It has to be the people in charge and one would have to ponder a guess that the ones getting a million + in bonuses are the people in charge. Kind of like giving the coach ot the Lions a million dollar bonus for an 0-16 season don’t ya think?

EDIT: Bho just said

"Just as outrageous is the culture that these bonuses are a symptom of, that has existed for far too long: excess greed, excess compensation, excess risk-taking," he said.

Now that is something I do not agree with. If the money is there, the money a company has made, not gotten form the goberment, they can and should be able to di what they want with it. The big thing here is that he wants total control of banks and such to further his agenda and that is the death of America