Posted on 03/18/2009 8:30:44 PM PDT by conservativegramma
If you only see one video on the internet today, or if you only want to listen to one sound bite on the internet, this is the one you must play.
Republicans in Congress today pushed to the floor of the House of Representatives legislation that would stop AIG from using taxpayer money to pay out its executives’ bonuses. The Democrats killed the legislation.
Outraged, Congresswoman Foxx (R-NC) took to the floor to demand that Congresswoman Kilroy (D-OH) explain why Kilroy and the Democrats would not stop AIG from paying out the bonuses.
Kilroy flat out could not offer up any answer. Making it more delightful, Foxx refused to back down until she had an answer. Hilarity ensued.
Hey genius, the doors would be shut at AIG and no one there receiving a pay check at all if it were not for billions in taxpayer monies given to AIG to bail them out. A bail out that is on going... They keep coming back asking for more...
No one at the company is entitled to a taxpayer funded “bonus”. So go blow your smoke somewhere else.
Excellent video...the refusal of “gentellady kilroy” to simply answer the question speaks for itself!!!
Bravo. Well done sir. “Obama AIG Bonuses”
“The only problem is that there is nothing wrong with paying the bonuses.”
I was pondering the outrage today and asking myself ...”if the money doesn’t go to the executives - who will it go to?” What exactly IS AIG doing with all their dinero?
So - these executives get alot of dough - take it home and stimulate the local economy. They pay taxes on it. They pay their maid - pay their nanny. They buy nice stuff.
As far as I can tell the “other” money - the other chunk of billions seems to continue to get flushed down some mysterious black hole.
I figure the money is better spent just giving it to the “greedy” executives.
Que Bob Dylan, “The Times, they are a’ Changing”
Such a drama queen!
Commerce on any large scale would come to a halt.
The real mistake was that congress did not let AIG go chapter 11. Had they done that, contracts would be no good.
I have been involved in quite a few bankruptcies as a vendor but never as a paid employee,. Government comes first, federal, state and local, then secured creditors which means holders of liens, notes, etc., and then common creditors. I doubt that AIG would have enough to get past the governments and secured creditors although that is a guess. I have no facts to support my guess.
Employees are in the common creditor group and therefore would have received no bonus, if all assets went to the secured parties.
Thanks
I applaud Rep. Foxx.
I don't know about the specific bill mentioned but it is indeed chilling to think these morons believe it constitutional to write bill targeting individuals. However, they have a similar bonus program at Freddy Mac and Fanny Mae and that doesn't seem legitimate and the entire situation is getting (has gotten) out of hand. Both Freddy and Fanny have been slush fund organizations for Democrat bench warmers for 20 years and years. This sh*t has to stop.
What is legal may not be morally correct.
I am drunk. I slip on the ice and break my arm on your front walk.
Legally I can sue you for everything you have because you did not scrape the ice off the walk.
Am I morally clean when I do so?
Is management immoral when they take money beyond basic living expenses when the company, the stock holders, the creditors all are wiped out on their watch?
So we have two questions:
What is legal?
What is moral?
You’re clearly not immune to mob psychology.
The rule of law and property rights be damned.
If GOVERNMENT is going to be applying pressure, then I want GOVERNMENT to be LIMITED to pressuring according to the LAW, not MORALS.
Totalitarians trample on the law, and trample on the people, all in the name of “morality.”
Yeah, the country has gone a long way downhill when conservatives are joining in the mob demanding that Congress throw out contracts and determine what compensation people are allowed to make based on public opinion.
Not 'cause I'm a nice guy or anything like that, I just try to encourage said behaviors that increase the bottom line.
So why are you getting upset? These bonus(s) are nothing but hush money ... for everyone in the chain of command or regulatory roles.
Consider this analogy - Tom Brady's contract with the New England Patriots called out certain bonuses that were due to him under the terms of the contract. He gets injured early in the season so he misses nearly all the games and the Pats completely miss the playoffs. Some disgruntled fans might ask "why should we pay a bonus to Tom Brady since he didn't play after the first game of the season and didn't even get the Pats to the playoffs and he didn't even show up for the Pro Bowl?" It doesn't matter, under the terms of the contract the Patriots owe him the bonus.
The same thing is true with AIG. Under the terms of the contract AIG owes these "bonuses" regardless of whether or not the company lost billions of dollars. Since the government poured billions of dollars into AIG, AIG had the cash flow to pay the contractual obligations it owed. Congress could have written provisions into the bailout legislation restricting executive compensation as terms of the cash infusion, but the DIShonorable Chris Dodd specifically exempted contractual compensation agreements from any restrictions. (Yes this is the same democrat banking finance committee chairman who is the number one recipient of AIG campaign cash.)
Agreed. If such bonuses are common practice in this industry, then AIG cannot be expected to remain a viable and competitive firm going forward without them. We just can’t have it both ways. The idiots should not have bailed them out if they didn’t want them to remain a viable private firm.
And how do you know that? Have you seen the contracts? The owners of that money are the American people and we haven't even been told who got the money. We're told one minute it was retention bonuses and the next we find out it was given to people who aren't even working there any more. What were the terms of those bonuses, and were those terms lived up to? You don't know, neither do I, but as 80% owners of that company, we SHOULD be allowed to know that.
Just a couple of clucking hens with nary a scruple between ‘em!
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