AIG Bonus Bonanza

As President Barack Obama readies himself for appearances in California, and an appearance on Jay Leno's Tonight Show, he is quite upset over the AIG bonuses being handed out - almost to the point of it being a temper-tantrum. He, and Chris Dodd, and I suppose the rest of the Liberal Little Rascals, regardless of contractual terms, and a little thing called The Dodd Amendment, have vowed to put into action plans to try and stop the sinister bonus plans of the evil Darth AIG.

Never you mind that the contract for these bonuses was agreed upon long before any government bailout began to take shape. Do you think these guys in line to receive these bonuses are a little upset at the uproar from Washington D.C.? Of course they are. But what did they expect would happen when the government bailed out AIG, and basically stuck their long nailed claws into the workings of the failing company? Fact is, if you receive government money for anything, and that goes for you folks out there in internet land, as well, it opens up the opportunity for the government to dictate the terms of your business, or your lives, or your health care, or whatever it is they placed dollar signs into.

The AIG bonuses are essentially retention pay, paid to the executives in an effort to convince the talent not to jump ship when the vessel begins to list, or even if it gets nowhere near an iceberg, or endangers a swimming polar bear, but desires to hang on to the talent executives anyhow. Had the all-powerful, Obamacized, Government just let AIG fail like any other poorly run business, the contracts under bankruptcy law would be void, the rats would have jumped overboard, and the world would be without one more failed, and poorly managed, business entity.

All-knowing liberal bureaucrats, however, are convinced that if AIG fails, we are heading headlong into another great depression. After all, they will argue, AIG is interwoven into the entire financial market, and their failure would initiate a domino-effect that would topple financial institution after financial institution, shoving us over a high cliff and into the deep chasm of a horrendous depression that only Franklin Delano Roosevelt's reincarnation, The Great and Powerful Ozbama, could possibly pull us out of.

I was a banker for four years, and a financial agent for two years. I experienced the Savings and Loan debacle. The entire Savings and Loan Industry collapsed, and we didn't wind up in a severe depression. We had a short slow down, and then years of prosperity because the "losers" of the financial world were out of the way so that successful entities could grow and prosper in their place.

Failed businesses are like sick Caribou that limp along and slow down the herd. The healthy caribou don't help them along, or slow down for them. They let them fall, let the wolves eat them, and then the strong, up and coming businesses (err, uh, animals) strengthen the herd.

What is really interesting about this is how "suddenly" the Democrats are up in arms over this, like it is some kind of surprise. The reality is that the Democrats knew all along that these bonuses were coming. These bonuses were the whole reason for The Dodd Amendment which, in the stimulus bill, allows all bonuses contractually agreed upon before February 11 to be awarded. And, of course, AIG is one of the main reasons for that amendment. Senator Chris Dodd, after all, is the largest single recipient of 2008 campaign donations from AIG, along with other politicians, including, but not limited to, Barack Obama, the all-so moderate John McCain, and Hillary Clinton.

Now that these bonuses has surfaced, however, the uproar is more than the Democrats expected, so to cover their butts, and probably also to deflect attention away from Obama's injection of socialism into America, they are acting as if they are angered and appalled by the very audacity of AIG's executive's greed.

After all, the Democrats don't need any more bad publicity, right?

Maybe they are just too stupid to eliminate "mark to market" rules, which will enable some immediate economic growth (of course if they do relax the "mark to market" rules, the temporary jolt to the economy will be proclaimed far and wide as being the result of Obama's brilliant policies - then the whole thing will slump again because of a lack of incentive to invest). Or perhaps they refuse to recognize historical facts like how in 1938 the U.S. unemployment rate was 19%, while the rest of the world (which wasn't pumping government money into the problem like FDR was) was at 11%. Presidents Harding and Coolidge met with a recession and cut taxes while cutting federal spending, resulting in the boom years of the 1920's. Hoover, a big spender and tax hiker (despite the "R" after his name) led us into the Great Depression with his policies (and the assistance of the unconstitutional Federal Reserve Bank), and Franklin Delano Roosevelt worsened it with his socialist programs and "tax and spend" policies.

In the end, Obama's policies will actually prolong this economic downturn, followed by a number of relapses with the introduction of each new "stimulus" package. Throwing stimulus plans at the depression in the 1930's didn't help, and they won't help today.

As for that Obama temper tantrum over the AIG Bonus Bonanza? He's just trying to throw the watch dogs off the scent. And Obama and his ilk will do what they do best to get that bonus money back - they will tax it and tax it and tax it some more.

Take that, you wealthy people.

Now, where is that next townhall meeting or television appearance for Obama? Jeez, he's trying to be a rock star, and the duties (though ill-performed) of the presidency keeps distracting him.

-- Political Pistachio Conservative News and Commentary