Well, AIG CEO Edward Liddy is up for his Congressional beatdown as I write. I’m sure he’ll find palatable things to say to his fully engorged interrogators.
The outrage is badly out of whack. Pissing and moaning about a measly $165 million in this context is like leaving the onions off a footlong chili cheese dog because you’re watching your weight. Nevertheless, it funnels nicely into that whole rich-get-richer-on-the-backs-of-the-unfairly-exploited-poor gestalt, so its popular appeal, however illogical, is easily understood.
The outrage is also good. I’m reaching for anything right now that looks like a brake on the federal government’s orgy, and this flavor of resonating popular disapproval could be it. Mind, I expect the first reaction of the government to be to continue bailing out anyone “too big to fail,” only with much more restrictive language. The gambit there for the hopeful amongst us is that such will be too difficult, i.e. any bill with teeth will be sufficiently controversial (or unconstitutional, for whatever that’s worth anymore) to fail.
Perhaps then the government will stop keeping zombies “alive” with Monopoly money, and the natural business cycle (that, necessarily and healthily, includes failure) will return.
Yes, it’s probably too much to hope for.
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What’s lost in the cacophony was the suggestion that those bonuses be 100% taxed. Um, what. the. hell?
“They should voluntarily return them. If they don’t, we plan to tax virtually all of it,” New York Sen. Chuck Schumer declared on the Senate floor.
What the hell has gone wrong with this government that they will blatantly stand there and say, we are going to create a special tax law to zap these 73 individuals, personally?
Yeah, yeah. Tell me it’d be struck down as unconstitutional. It’s proposing it in the first place that’s the real problem.
It’s a crisis, ‘seester. Nothing is too ridiculous. Everything must be on the table.
This is a scary, scary time.
I love the word “cacophony.”
I love the mock outrage on the part of the Obama Administration and Senator Dodd concerning these AIG bonuses. Dodd admitted today that he inserted the loophole in the stimulus bill that allowed the bonuses and he stated that he did it at the behest of the administration. Just yesterday they were acting all outraged and surprised about the bonuses. No wonder they rushed the bill through before anyone could read it.
It’s goontown. It’s like the guy voted most likely to succeed at your college was slammed into the Oval Office right after the photo was taken for the yearbook.
So I read today:
“WASHINGTON – The House is scheduled to vote today on a bill that would levy a 90 percent tax on bonuses paid to employees with family incomes above $250,000 at companies that have received at least $5 billion in government bailout money.
“We figured that the local and state governments would take care of the other 10 percent,” said Rep. Charles Rangel of New York, chairman of the tax-writing House Ways and Means Committee.”
This is ALLLLLLL KINDS OF WRONG! OMG, I am hyperventilating here. What if the family income is less. DO they keep the bonus? So you are penalizing dual professionals. So, so, so. OMG!
HEY! I have an idea. Let’s fucking tax any lawmaker who’s family makes over 250,000, 100% of the salary they receive from US. That oughta do it.
Oh and this: But Obama added, “The buck stops with me.”
What the hell is with this stupid channeling of ex-presidents?