AMERICAN INTERNATIONAL GROUP

What is up with AIG? Is this a case of:

• Arrogant executives of AIG


• Government's mishandling of TARP (Troubled Asset Relief Program)


• or a case of Tail Wagging the DOG

If you listened to the media you would believe that this is strictly a case of another corporation gone wild with executive compensation, taking advantage of its employees, the government and the tax payer. But if you look at the facts a little deeper than the "Obama Media" it might paint a different picture.

SOME IMPORTANT FACTS:

- The first thing we need to know is that President Bush worked very closely with Timothy Geithner, the current Treasury Secretary, to design the first bailout plan for AIG. (That is why it would have been so difficult to not approve Geithner's appointment after he spent so much time and effort prior to the nomination even after it came out he was a tax cheat.)

- Next, we all need to know that this very issue was discussed before the stimulus package was ever passed in February. Yes, the one the President said would not contain any earmark but contained over 9,000. There was actually a provision put in the stimulus package guaranteeing these very bonuses that everyone is all up in arms over. These bonuses came as no surprise.

- The next fact we need to know is what I'll call "follow the money", normally a fail proof system of finding the reason for every governmental transaction. President Obama was the largest recipient of campaign contributions from AIG followed by Senator Christopher Dodd. Third place was far behind.

CONCLUSION:

The President ran a very successful presidential campaign with a theme of Change. One of the main things he was planning to change is corporate creed. Corporations have taken advantage of the American worker and very few have become rich on the backs of the many. A classic case of class warfare. Make the masses mad at the evil corporations and the greedy rich and the President can accomplish much of his liberal agenda in the name of "justice."

Although the President is still very popular, the popularity is fading and the American public is starting to get a little concerned about the massive amount of money the government plans to spend when the government is already in debt an astronomical amount. So let's create another distraction or scandal to re-energize the American people's hostility towards big business like bonuses for executives of a company that needed tax payer dollars to survive. This now gives the President license to go even further with his liberal policies of spreading the wealth. First he uses Rush Limbaugh to distract the attention of the American people, now he uses AIG.

The problem is, Christopher Dodd put a provision in the stimulus bill protecting these bonuses and he claims it was at the urging of someone in the executive branch. So both Congress and the President knew about these bonuses and wanted to protect their campaign contributors. In addition, many of these were not performance bonuses and were legally due the employees, not just executives, by contract.

While everyone is up in arms over AIG, some of the other financial institutions receiving bailout money have paid bonuses without any uproar. So why AIG? The answer is, it makes political sense. The news of the bonuses came at a time when the President needed the country a little more distracted. The news of the bonuses came at a time when the government just gave them more money so the President had to act outraged when the government could have easily prevented these bonuses. The news of these bonuses came at a time when the Democrats needed the American people just a little more mad at corporate America so they can pass new "Cap and Trade", health care reform and education reform all on the backs of these big bad corporations. This only hides the fact that the American consumer will ultimately pay these additional taxes through increased prices on the goods produced by these big bad corporations.

Clinton used Serbia attacks to get the attention away from Monica Lewinsky and his Presidential wiener. Bush used the 9/11 attacks to promote an attack on Iraq. Obama is using the AIG bonuses to pass his radical liberal agenda. I may sound like a conspiracy freak but just look at the facts. It is either the Federal Government has acted totally incompetent or irresponsible and totally botched the whole TARP or the President has made a pretty good show of outrage over a situation he had the knowledge and the ability to avert but chose not. Either way, we have some problems.

HERE IS WHAT SCARES ME THE MOST OF THIS SITUATION. Congress moved to pass a bill to tax these particular legal bonuses at 90% and the President says he wants to limit executive compensation to $500,000 for companies receiving aid. First, Congress feels they have the power to use laws to punish companies or individuals who do not act as they feel they should. Even if it was legal! Second, the President's move will drive top executive out of the country. Who do you want to fix the mess of these companies? Some of the top financial minds? These people come at a price. Foreign companies have already begun head hunting top executives here in the U.S. One day the President says he does not want to govern out of anger and the next he says we should all be angry and then he uses America's anger to make some extremely radical moves.

Hear the other side. Read a letter from an AIG executive.

http://www.nytimes.com/2009/03/25/opinion/25desantis.html?ref=opinion

THE FIRST 50 DAYS
Barack Obama has been President for 50 days now so I though we should review how it has gone. My original thought was to wait for 100 days but so much has happened I thought we should do it now. Approval ratings remain high but W's ratings were very similar at this point of his Presidency and with an inept media I would expect nothing else. I will admit I concentrate on the negatives mainly because I fear what the social agenda will do to this nation.

Let's take a look at at the first priorities of the new President. His first order was to close Gitmo to protect the rights of the terrorists. Reports of torture were too much for Americans to stomach so, without another plan, he ordered the Guantanamo prison to be closed within one year, although a lawyer for the prisoners has claimed the abuse has "sharply" risen under the new President. The next executive order was to reverse President Bush's ban of funding international abortions. (Here's my bias spin) He took awa the right of the unborn and gave it to the terrorists. In addition to all this, when it was time to grant his first interview he choose a muslim media. Not sure this means anything but it is at least interesting.

One of the first tasks a new President must undertake is to choose his staff. This is the first opprotunity the President had to prove he meant he was going to change the way Washington worked. How many have been disqualified or removed their names because they did not pay their taxes? The Illinois Govenor was removed from office for his "pay to play" method of choosing the replacement for the President's vacant senate seat. I am not sure the Dems method of choosing cabinet positions is any different except Blago was a little more obvious about it. Under the President's plan, you have to clean your closet and pay the taxes you have cheated the American people of before you can be nominated. Believe it or not, one of those tax cheats is now the Treasury Secretary!

CAMPAIGN PROMISES: When choosing our leaders we go through a campaigning process to learn more about the candidates. The promises made during this process and their past accomplishments is all we have to make our decision. Since Mr. Obama had accomplished very little in public life we only had his words to go by.

- The public has become disenfanchised with our elected officials a lot because all the backroom deals so this President promised no backroom deals "the most transparent administration." Well, it took all but his first piece of legislation to break that promise.

- Also in the name of transparency, he promised a 5 day period between when a bill was introduced and voted on so eveyone could see what they were voting for, nothing hidden. Championing a theme of urgency, the Democrats did not even allow 24 hours for the Congress to read the 1071 page bill. 0 for 2.

- The public has also become disenchanted over the abuse of "earmarks", special projects for individual congressional districts, so he promised no earmarks. It has been reported that the same simulus bill included over 9,000 earmarks. (On this he pulled a Bill Clinton, if the facts don't support you just change a definition which is what he did to "earmarks.") 0-3 on the first bill.

- The thought of lobbyists buying votes has rubbed the American electorate wrong and has been pinned as a major problem of the Republican Party so Obama vowed no lobbyists on his staff. Guess what, he now has lobbyists on his staff and calls them "exceptions". Don't get me wrong, lobbyists have expertise so the use of lobbyists on his staff is probably good but still a broken promise.

- Candidate Obama was going to go through each bill "line by line" and weed out wasteful spending but after it was obvious the new spending bill was loaded with pork he admitted that the bill was not perfect. President Obama's first real opportunity to bring real change to Washington resulted in failure. Wasn't "Change" pretty much the entire theme of his campaign?

A lot of campaign promises are broken eventually. Those are little white lies but how do you defend standing in front of the American public and saying they passed a stimulus bill with no earmarks and will soon pass a budget the same. What about saying they have already identified $2 trillion in savings over the next 10 years and then later having to admit the savings were projecting the surge out long after President Bush had already scheduled the soldiers return and calling it a savings. The balance of the "savings" was actually a tax increase. Those are out and out lies and trickery.

The worse deception of all is his attempt to sell his liberal plans. "Our economy did not decline overnight." True enough but he claims we are paying for our sins of the past in the areas of energy, health care and education. The basis of this crisis is the housing market. Leading economists around, even democratic leaders in Congress have stated this but by redefining the problem he can conjure support for his radical plans. The time is to deal with the crisis at hand and not hurt the economy more by making drastic and costly changes. Even some of his strongest supporters, like billionaire Warren Buffet, have stated this.

Let's talk economy. Yes, the economy was bad and geting worse. I contend that the election of Obama was all but written back in August 2008 after the primaries were over and since then the market has been cut in half. Every time the White House has told the public of their plan to help with the stimulus plan, the banks, housing the market immediately took a deep drop. Bottom line: the ones whose job it is to predict the economic future do not like the way the President plans to manage the economy. President Obama has spent so much time and effort reflecting blame for the problem that his doom and gloom rhetoric has amounted to little confidence for investors.

As discussed earlier, the stimulus plan was more about initiating liberal policies than it was about stimulating the economy. We need to have people spending money to get the economy moving but the difference between the Democrat plan and the Republican plan is who is spending the money. Reps. think the American people should decide how their money is spent and the Dems. believe that government should. My biggest problem with this is that the government gets to decide who will succeed and who will fail not the free market and that, my friends, is just wrong.

The theme of this administration so far has been "never waste a crisis". The Democrats credit President Bush with originating this theme but the Dems perfected it. As I have stated in previous posts, this is the perfect liberal storm. Blame everything on the previous administration and use the crisis to make all the socialist changes they want. Waste not want not is exactly what they have done so far. So far this administration has used it power to pay back supporters and initiate moves that will ensure the Democrats power for a long time to come, and to distract the media, the White House targeted Rush Limbaugh.

Recently, the proud socialist President of Venezuelan, Hugo Chavez offered a bit of advice to President Obama on how to solve all the country's economic problems. He urged him to continue what he is doing and follow the path of socialism. (You can't make this stuff up.) I think Obama's response was something like, "I'm way ahead of you, comrad."