Clueless in Washington II: The AIG Bonus Mess

Jay Are's Take

by Jay are


On March 14th I wrote a piece entitled Clueless in Washington in which I pointed out how Obama had issued an Executive Order, lifting former President Bush's Executive Order banning Federal funds from being used for stem cell research.

Shortly thereafter, he signed the omnibus appropriations bill into law on Wednesday not knowing that buried in the 465 page bill was what is know as the Dickey-Wicker amendment, which has been included in the annual appropriations bill for the Department of Health and Human Services every year since 1996. Essentially the amendment forbids the use of Federal funds in stem cell research.

Why did this happen, because the President did not read the bill before he signed it into law.

Well here we are again hearing about a bill that was signed into law without reading it. The bill I refer to is the Stimulus package that was sent to the President from Congress. You know the 1,000 page bill that NOBODY read, well the President signed it into law, all 787 Billion of it.

Shortly there after enters the AIG Bonus mess. Finger pointing begins AIG is made to look like a bunch of crooks and greedy CEOs.

President Obama acts shocked, Congress takes action and wants to tax the recipients of the bonus at a 90 percent rate which may be unconstitutional.

Obama's plan to handle this mess? Fly off to California, make a guest appearance on the Tonight Show and trash the Special Olympics. Yuk it up with Leno about the AIG mess, make a comedy of it to distract from the real issue at hand, not the bonuses, but how they were included in the Stimulus package and no one seemed to know it. Or did they ?

Enter Treasury Secretary Tim(tax cheat)Geithner who apparently knew of the bonuses on March 10th but did not inform the White House until March 12th, two days before the checks were sent.

Enter Senator Chris Dodd(ge)who at first denied any role in crafting the provision that kept the bonuses in the Stimulus package, then said that he had asked Senators to include the provision but only because Treasury officials asked him to do so.

So how does Obama react to all of this ? He defends Geithner by saying:

With the exception of Alexander Hamilton, no Treasury secretary has "had to deal with the multiplicity of issues that Secretary Geithner has," he said. "He is making all the right moves in terms of playing a bad hand."

Then Obama makes one of the most ridiculous statements I have yet to hear him make, he refers to the financial firms and Geithner dealing with them and says:

"They've got a bomb strapped to them and they've got their hand on the trigger."

Wow ! I hate to keep harping on it folks, but it bears repeating, can you just imagine what reaction the press and the left would have had if President Bush had made these statements under the same circumstances.

But hey, its business as usual with the Clueless in Washington crowd. Buckle up folks, it's going to be a long and bumpy four years.