Obama Supporters Deserve The Money
Feb 12, 2010 Political
Barack Obama and his Democrats took over where George Bush left off and bailed out banks and other financial institutions to the tune of billions of dollars. These entities were “too big to fail” and were spared the consequences of their bad decisions, decisions fueled by greed. Fueled by greed and knowledge that they would be bailed out if they made bad mistakes.
The financial giants reap huge rewards when they make investments and then get taxpayer money to save them when they gamble and lose. Ann Coulter has a great piece this week laying this all out. In it she describes what happened with regard to Goldman Sachs and other institutions that packaged bad loans and then insured them through AIG which could not cover the losses. Taxpayers bailed out AIG which was the same as bailing out Goldman.
During all of this, Obama went on the blame the bankers tour and discussed the greedy guys and how their salaries needed to be capped. There were tours by the homes of AIG executives, Congress worked on legislation taxing bonuses at 90% and the citizens of America were worked into a frenzy over the greedy bankers.
But these people helped put Obama in office. Obama received huge sums of money from the financial industry and they have been friends of the Democrats for a long time (as Coulter points out, Clinton bailed them out during his presidency). So it came as no surprise this week that Obama said he did not begrudge the bonuses of savvy bankers (particularly the ones who are his supporters):
Whatever Obama has in mind for punishing the financial industry, I promise you, he won’t punish his friends. After JPMorgan CEO Jamie Dimon took a $17 million bonus this week, and Goldman CEO Lloyd Blankfein got a $9 million bonus, Obama said he didn’t begrudge them their bonuses, saying, “I know both those guys.” Ann Coulter Human Events
What happened to people not getting huge bonuses? What happened to Barney Frank and his desire to cap salaries and bonuses of all of them even if they took no TARP money? What happened to the outrage generated by Obama and his minions over these greedy bankers?
I have no problem with bankers (or any private business people) making huge sums of money for doing a good job and I have no problem with huge bonuses. I did not have trouble with the AIG bonuses particularly because the Obama administration knew about them and people worked for a dollar a year in salary on the promise of the bonuses (which the administration then reneged on). I also have no problem with a business failing if it can’t make money and that includes financial giants and auto makers. If they can’t cut it then they can fail.
However, I am not the one who ran around whipping the country into a frenzy over greedy bankers. How dare Obama call these people greedy and rail against them last year and then step up to defend their huge bonuses this year? How can he do this and remain consistent?
He can’t, but he does not have to. If he says it is good his base will blindly follow. They will ignore Obama’s words and deeds of the past and focus on what the messiah says now. They will not draw the connection between Obama and the campaign dollars he gets from these people.
When Obama said he knows these people he meant the bankers but it could apply to his base.
Interestingly, David Reilly at Bloomberg has a piece that basically says Obama needs to man up and knock a few heads to show people who is in charge (note to Reilly, coequal means that he is not in charge of Congress). He writes about several issues which are better saved for another time but he does address financial regulation. Reilly spells out a number of tactics that Obama can use to threaten the banking industry into submission. The tactics look like something one would expect from Tony Soprano and not the leader of the US but Reilly is encouraging the kinds of tactics the left would scream fascist or Nazi over if a Republican did them.
The government owes the private sector about 7 trillion dollars. Suppose the banks called those markers all at once? Suppose the banks stopped lending for a week. I imagine if they tried hard they could send the economy in the Great Depression range so perhaps the mafia style tactics would be a poor idea.
Then again, Reilly is like typical supporters who decry strong-arm politics when Republicans use them but espouse them in order to push the Democrat agenda. This is typical of the left and we see it in Congress whenever they are in charge. We can’t knock heads of terrorists or it is torture but we can do what we want to those who oppose us…
I think the hypocrisy of Obma has been exposed in the past and it is very clear in his latest support of the huge bonuses. I also think we have a number of leftists in the media calling for him to get tough because they are worried about a Palin presidency.
Whether she will run or not or could even win is not the point.
Just the idea of that drives liberals and the progressives nuts.
And that is a joy to see.
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Tags: aig, ann coulter, bailout, bonuses, goldman, hypocrisy, Obama, savvy
Obama Untruthful About Bonuses; Frank To Endanger AIG Employees
Mar 19, 2009 Political
Barack Obama and his lackeys have been running around screaming about the perfectly legal bonuses that some AIG employees received. I understand the uproar but the politicians have created an atmosphere of hatred and it is getting dangerous. Employees of AIG have been threatened as have their families and this is all because of the frenzy whipped up by the administration and the members of Congress who actually allowed the bonuses to happen.
Today the CEO of AIG was being grilled by Congress and limp wristed Barney Rubble, I mean Frank asked for the names of the employees who had received bonuses. Mr. Liddy said he would not give them unless he could be assured they would not be made public and Frank said he would make no such promise and that he would issue a subpoena for the names if he had to. Then Liddy read some of the hate mail that had been received including one that said the employees and their families should be strung up by piano wire. Frank said that he thought that it was just talk and he wanted the names.
No one treats it as just talk when people make any statement about Obama that in any way can be interpreted as a threat. I am willing to bet that if letters and emails started arriving at Frank’s office saying that he should be killed he would have protection and he would have investigations to find out who it is. And if there is anyone who should be strung up by piano wire it is that light in the loafers jackass. Frank seems not to care too much about the employees and their families.
If he releases the names and anything happens to those people Frank should be executed immediately. However, it is unlikely he would be held accountable for his actions. He is a major reason we had the economic collapse and he is still in office.
As for Obama, he is playing fast and loose with the facts. He claims that he only learned of the bonuses last week but a number of media outlets are reporting that he was aware of them before he took office. A number of people in government, many who are now feigning righteous indignation, knew about this months ago. It was not until the story enraged the public that most became upset.
The AP reports, via Yahoo News:
While administration officials insisted Tuesday that neither Obama nor Geithner learned of the impending bonus payments until last week, the problem wasn’t new. AIG’s plans to pay hundreds of millions of dollars were publicized last fall, when Congress started asking questions about expensive junkets the company had sponsored. A November SEC filing by the company details more than $469 million in “retention payments” to keep prized employees.
Back then, Rep. Elijah E. Cummings, D-Md., began pumping Liddy for information on the bonuses and pressing him to scale them back. “There was outrage brewing already,” Cummings said. “I’m saying (to Liddy), ‘Be a good citizen. … Do something about this.’ ”
Around the same time, outside lawyers hired by the Federal Reserve started reviewing the bonuses as part of a broader look at retention and compensation plans, according to government officials who spoke on condition of anonymity. The outside attorneys examined the possibility of making changes to the company plans — scaling them back, delaying them or rescinding them. They ultimately concluded that even if AIG’s bonuses were withheld, the company would probably be sued successfully by its employees and be forced to pay them, the officials said.
Obama had to know about this or he is even more incompetent than I thought. All his players knew about it and it was part of SEC filings. The article goes on to explain how there were a number of discussions about how to stop it and that when the stimulus bill was being crafted they passed up a chance to stop the bonuses and instead inserted a Dodd amendment that allowed them. Dodd initially denied he added the amendment but today fessed up and said he was responsible for the loophole that allowed the bonuses to be paid. It looks like the Democrats are losing even more credibility by the minute.
Obama’s time line does not square with what is being reported. Like I said, he had to have known or he is completely incompetent. I think it is both but if he continues to deny knowing then he is admitting that he does not know what is going on and that is a sign of an incompetent “leader.”
Then again, he showed that he was incompetent when he signed a bill he did not read.
Obama is not getting a honeymoon period because he and his minions have used most of his political capital. The only people who are steadfastly sticking to him are the toadies who worship the ground he walks on.
Most others are starting to wake up and, like the hungover college kid who awakens next to an ugly woman, ask themselves what did I do?
Obama gets caught in a lie just about every week. He is caught breaking campaign promises just about every week and he is using the fabricated crisis to push through things that would never pass muster during times of tranquility.
One thing is certain and that is Obama and his toadies knew about the bonuses and they made them possible by adding amendments to bills and signing things that were never read.
It is a piss poor way to run a country if you ask me.
Related:
Shep Smith at Fox goes off on Congress and the Administration.
Barney Frank defended Fannie and Freddie while they were sinking but making Democrats rich and now it looks like they will be paying bonuses. Will Congress go after them as well? Stay tuned…
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Tags: aig, barney frank, bonuses, Congress, dodd, fox, lies, murder, Obama, shep smith
What Is The Big Deal About AIG Bonuses?
Mar 16, 2009 Political
Today the world is in turmoil because AIG is paying out 165 million dollars in bonuses that it is contractually obligated to pay. People are being whipped into a frenzy about this because AIG received about 170 BILLION dollars in taxpayer money as part of the bailout. The problem is, the government placed no restrictions on the money and now wants to dictate terms over existing contracts. If the government had provided proper oversight instead of handing out money like candy at Halloween then there would be room for this indignation but since it did not, oh well.
To be fair, the deal was made by the Bush administration and Obama inherited it but it was crafted by a Democratically controlled Congress. Many of the members of Congress (from both parties) who worked on this are still there and this is on them.
Barney Frank is claiming that the bonuses amount to rewarding incompetence. I think Frank’s pay is a reward for incompetence because he was instrumental in giving us this mess. In fact, nearly all of Congress gets rewarded for incompetence because people keep reelecting them.
The New York Attorney General, Andrew Cuomo, wants the names of all people getting bonuses. Cuomo is going to investigate whether any of the recipients had anything to do with the decline of the company. What does it matter? They had contracts and contracts are legally binding.
Barack Obama said this can’t be justified. It can if you go by the rule of law and see that Congress and the Bush administration allowed Hank Paulson to write the rules and gave him blank checks to hand out. These are the same people that forced solvent banks to take the money so that the ones who needed it would not be singled out as failing thus causing more problems. Wells Fargo paid lower dividends and owes a fortune in interest because money they did not need was forced upon them.
Regardless of all this I want to know what the big deal really is. My understanding is that the companies have to pay back the bailout money. If that is the case what does it matter how they spend it especially if there were no rules?
Additionally, I have heard a number of members of Congress defend the earmarks they added (to the stimulus and the omnibus) by stating that they are a small percentage of the overall sum. Commenters at this site have made the same claim in justifying the spending. If that is the case, the money AIG spent on bonuses is only a small percentage of what it received in bailout money and it is even a smaller percentage of the overall amount spent to bailout all banks.
If the Congress can justify 9000 earmarks by claiming they are a small amount of the total package why can’t AIG do the same with regard to the bonuses?
The bottom line is, both expenditures involve taxpayer money. There is no reason AIG should not be able to live by the same rules that Congress sets for itself.
The other reality is that Congress did a poor job of overseeing this. For all their whining about oversight and checks and balances, they certainly dropped the ball on this one.
Of course, they dropped the ball in the first place and that allowed the collapse to happen. Thank the indignant banking queen Barney Frank and his partner in crime Chris Dodd for that. The subprime problem and Freddie and Fannie toppled the financial world. The other problems were collateral damage.
Suck it up Obama, Frank (maybe that is not the right phrase to use with Frank) and the rest of you whiners. I did not like the idea of the bailouts to begin with and your lack of oversight in the process makes it even worse.
But, those folks had contracts and since you did not address them then it is unlikely you will be able to address them now.
A contract is a contract and all the bluster from Obama, Frank, and Cuomo can’t change that. They can say it amounts to rewarding incompetence but who allowed it to happen? Not providing proper oversight is the definition if incompetence.
As an aside, the government has given AIG the bailout money in about four installments. Do they expect us to believe that they could not have set some kind of rules on any one of those occasions?
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Tags: aig, bailout, barney frank, bonuses, cuome, incompetence, Obama