Congress for Sale - Cheap

Barney Frank, Chris Dodd and most of the other congressional democrats are hypocritical, blundering, political hacks without an ounce of integrity. They passed the ARRA bill, after inserting an amendment authorizing the payment of bonuses to AIG executives, without reading it, without adequately debating it, and they are now throwing everyone in sight under the bus to cover their own asses because of the miss-informed public outrage. For the first time since the Great Society legislative feeding frenzy of the 60’s under LBJ the democrats can’t stop acting like pigs at the trough. They know that everything they pass will probably be signed by BHO out on one of his junkets, hell, most of it was “demanded” by the White House to begin with.

I know of no congressperson who didn’t say YES I having read the bill, (> 1,000 pages in < 24 hours??) before it was passed, but they are all now expressing shock and surprise about the Bonus payment authorization. Huh? You can’t have it both ways kids. This also applies to Mr. President. His secretary Geithner says he knew about it all along, but he failed to tell his boss? And his boss failed to ask? They are both either lying or completely incompetent.
AIG Bonuses:
1. “Bonus” is a miss-label. Most of us think of a bonus as payment for extra effort or as a reward for some form of excellence. Combine that with the AIG debacle and you get a predictable reaction. The amounts involved were contractual agreements to pay individuals to help eliminate their own jobs. They were asked to help unwind the VERY complicated market derivative financial instruments they had created and managed. Who better to un-build a structure than the engineer who designed and supervised its construction? Basically, these individuals were told, you are fired, but if you stick around long enough to un-build your creation with the least possible loss to AIG, we will pay you a “retention fee” for saving us hundreds of millions. That is exactly what these individuals did, and payment was made as agreed.
2. Timothy Geithner new about them, Barack Obama new about them, Congress knew about them and included and amendment in the bill to allow them. The contracts for these bonuses were even disclosed in an SEC filing in May, 2008.
3. The congressional response of passing an illegal 90% ex-post facto income tax on these bonuses. How can that stand? All of the bonuses paid to date are exempt from this tax since they were paid before it was law, so what’s the point. We are taxing future bonuses? So that means that none of us can ever receive a bonus in the future? This is blatant pandering to public opinion by arrogant idiots in congress who think they are schmoozing us. I am completely disgusted by them. I have resolved to never again vote for an incumbent congress candidate.
4. There are actually people picketing in front of AIG offices and sending death threats to the families of the people who received these bonuses. Talk about stupidity. That explains the people in congress; they come from and are elected by this pool of numbskulls. God help us… oops, never mind, we aren’t allowed to invoke His involvement.