March 18, 2009
And The Winner Is…
Vol. 4 Issue 3
When they give out the Tony Awards this year
the nominees for best actor award should be:
Christopher Dodd, Barney Frank, Chuck
Schumer and Tim Geithner.
Neil Simon could not have written it any
better. What a comedy. Only it didn’t take
place on Broadway, it took place in Congress. As I
watched the actors trying to place blame on
everyone in the show except the script writer, I was
appalled, outraged and found myself
screaming at the TV.
It appears that the outrage against AIG’s
payment of $165 million in bonuses to its
employees, has reached the floor of Congress. [The new
Broadway playhouse] In an attempt to shift
the blame to Edward Liddy, the new CEO of AIG,
the Financial Services committee berated him
with accusations of misappropriations of
TARP funds and making a mockery of the
entire bailout process. The payments were made under
contractual agreements that were in place
since 2007. Liddy was put in place as CEO by Congress
six-months ago. His prior experience was in
the auto insurance industry. He has no experience in
the type of business AIG conducts.
While negotiating the Stimulus Bill,
during a late night closed talk session, a
congressional committee stripped a measure from the
stimulus bill that would have eliminated the
bonuses AIG paid to their employees. The $165 million in
bonuses paid by AIG are now being shunned by
Congress as a complete outrage on behalf of
their constituents. So what did Liddy do?
Like any actor on Broadway he stuck to the script,
which said, write the checks.
Just as actors improvise, Congress did
the same. Remember, they openly admitted
that they did not read the stimulus bill. Just like
walking out on stage without reading a
script, Congress is trying to improvise by blaming the other
members of the cast, but not the script
writer.
Chris Dodd allowed AIG to rake in
billions of dollars in his home state,
allowed the bonuses now so famous, and he is saying he’ll work
his tail off for the Citizens of America to
recoup every dollar."
Why don’t you start by returning the over
$216,000 you received in campaign
contributions from AIG, Mr. Dodd. Then force your colleagues to
return their share of AIG money paid into
their campaign accounts. Charles Schumer received
over $38,000 and stated, "we will see to it
that they give back every single dollar." John
McCain received $86,000 and President Obama
received over $100,000.
Congress continues to trash AIG, a
company they claim they now own. Why would
you trash yourself? If you want to be successful the
very last thing you want to do is put
yourself down. You will never succeed. What confidence will
people have in your organization if you keep
lambasting yourself?
Here is the loophole, from the section of
the stimulus package that deals with
compensation rules for TARP recipients:
"The prohibition required under clause (i)
shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus
payment required to be paid pursuant to a written
employment contract executed on or before
February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts
are determined by the Secretary or the
designee of the Secretary."
It is hard to imagine how the government
can prevent these contractual obligations
from going forward. The outrage that Congress has put
forth is an outrage in itself.
How about Congress and Geithner telling
the American people we screwed up, $165
million is billions less than the pork and earmarks
Congress rammed down our throats.
If Geithner, performed on stage the way he
is performing in his role as Treasury
Secretary, it wouldn’t be long before his understudy
stepped in. It is time to change the cast.
The envelope please! You decide.
And, that is my opinion.
Michael Solomon
If you want to
help restore sanity to America, join the
Flag Day campaign.
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