Author Topic: OUTRAGE! OUTRAGE! (Read 14784 times)

Perd Hapley · « **on:** March 17, 2009, 06:47:15 AM »

The news people keep telling me that the most important issue in the news is the OUTRAGE over the AIG bonuses. I call B.S. Anybody seeing this outrage out there? It seems to me that the Dem.'s (both the politicians and the media) are trying to manufacture outrage about this non-issue.

But then, I don't know what the common man is thinking anymore. Lately, I avoid him as much as possible.

Rush Limbaugh was right again. He was the only one who seemed to care, back in the fall, that the TARP bill contained absolutely no oversight. Obama, Pelosi, et al. have no right to complain. They are the ones to blame.

Standing Wolf · « **Reply #1 on:** March 17, 2009, 06:51:46 AM »

Bread and circuses.

Leatherneck · « **Reply #2 on:** March 17, 2009, 09:50:18 AM »

More disgust than outrage here. I'm more outraged by things our government is doing these days than I am at a (mostly) private firm.

TC

Nitrogen · « **Reply #3 on:** March 17, 2009, 10:04:37 AM »

DIsgust, but AIG is under a contractual obligation to pay those bonuses, so I really cant be that upset.

Chuck Dye · « **Reply #4 on:** March 17, 2009, 10:25:11 AM »

The Democrats and TARP giveaways are little different from Republicans and no-bid contracts in Iraq: honest politicians who, having been bought, stay bought. Just business as usual. Much of the so-called outrage is merely the recreational hysterics enjoying themselves with the same old familiar strokes.

Kingcreek · « **Reply #5 on:** March 17, 2009, 10:41:11 AM »

Just more of the circus. Republicans. Democrats. Who cares- after awhile, all the clowns look the same.

ronnyreagan · « **Reply #6 on:** March 17, 2009, 10:42:28 AM »

Quote from: Nitrogen on March 17, 2009, 10:04:37 AM

DIsgust, but AIG is under a contractual obligation to pay those bonuses, so I really cant be that upset.

Yeah, once I heard that it was part of their contracts that changed my opinion. I don't really consider anything in a contract to be a "bonus" (maybe I'm alone in that?) so I thought that calling them bonuses in the first place was kind of misleading. If it's part of their contract they definitely should be paid.

Balog · « **Reply #7 on:** March 17, 2009, 11:33:49 AM »

Quote from: ronnyreagan on March 17, 2009, 10:42:28 AM

Yeah, once I heard that it was part of their contracts that changed my opinion. I don't really consider anything in a contract to be a "bonus" (maybe I'm alone in that?) so I thought that calling them bonuses in the first place was kind of misleading. If it's part of their contract they definitely should be paid.

Lack of oversight in TARP; if they wanted the execs to not receive their contractual pay they should have made that a provision of funding them. Bread and circuses folks.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #8 on:** March 17, 2009, 12:10:33 PM »

As I just heard pointed out, these bonuses have been well know for a while. Suddenly, when the payments are being made, the administration suddenly fakes all this outrage with the media.

T.O.M. · « **Reply #9 on:** March 17, 2009, 12:15:46 PM »

I like how they are going to try and recover some of the bonuses. Sure, let's spend a ton of money to recover money from people who appear to be legally entitled to it. And, God forbid, you fight and keep the money, bet the IRS is going to crawl up your anus and look for the slightest violation.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #10 on:** March 17, 2009, 01:21:44 PM »

Quote from: MechAg94 on March 17, 2009, 12:10:33 PM

As I just heard pointed out, these bonuses have been well know for a while. Suddenly, when the payments are being made, the administration suddenly fakes all this outrage with the media.

I'm now hearing that Senator Dodd (D-Somewhere) added an amendment to the Porkulus bill, to ensure that, even if salaries were capped, there would be no limit on bonuses. And just now, he suggested that the AIG bonuses might be taxed at 90%.

grey54956 · « **Reply #11 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:11:34 PM »

The bonuses paid are legal.

AIG did nothing to hide the bonuses when they took the money.

Senators are now trying to introduce legislation to tax the bonuses away to recover the money.

Wow. That's just great. Apparently, we have reached the point where the gov't can tax things, legal or otherwise, because they don't like it or don't agree with it.

We have crossed the line from being a nation of laws to a nation of men.

Gentlemen, Tyranny has arrived.

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #12 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:24:07 PM »

Does that mean it's time for a revolution/civil war? :rolleyes:

charby · « **Reply #13 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:25:22 PM »

Quote from: Gewehr98 on March 17, 2009, 02:24:07 PM

Does that mean it's time for a revolution/civil war? :rolleyes:

No time to increase the tea-bagging efforts.

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #14 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:26:09 PM »

Ok, then can we have a civil war?

charby · « **Reply #15 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:29:06 PM »

Quote from: Gewehr98 on March 17, 2009, 02:26:09 PM

Ok, then can we have a civil war?

Do I have to wear pants?

lupinus · « **Reply #16 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:35:10 PM »

Quote from: Charby on March 17, 2009, 02:29:06 PM

Do I have to wear pants?

Yes, unless your ancestry leads you to the British Isles.

Then you can wear these bad boys-

Camo

Gewehr98 · « **Reply #17 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:36:35 PM »

Pants optional.

But don't you dare move that line you drew in the sand, again.

wquay · « **Reply #18 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:41:23 PM »

I don't see how you can blame Obama for TARP.

TARP was a result of Paulson and Bernanke telling Congress that the economy as we know it would cease to exist without federal intervention. Not surprisingly, congress capitulated. Of the over $150 billion given to AIG, over $10 billion was paid to Goldman Sachs, Paulson's former firm.

charby · « **Reply #19 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:46:16 PM »

Quote from: Gewehr98 on March 17, 2009, 02:36:35 PM

Pants optional.

But don't you dare move that line you drew in the sand, again.

I just moved it closer to my computer desk so I can ~~blog~~ hide ~~about~~ from it from a safe location.

wquay · « **Reply #20 on:** March 17, 2009, 02:48:20 PM »

Quote from: grey54956 on March 17, 2009, 02:11:34 PM

The bonuses paid are legal.

AIG did nothing to hide the bonuses when they took the money.

Senators are now trying to introduce legislation to tax the bonuses away to recover the money.

Wow. That's just great. Apparently, we have reached the point where the gov't can tax things, legal or otherwise, because they don't like it or don't agree with it.

We have crossed the line from being a nation of laws to a nation of men.

Gentlemen, Tyranny has arrived.

You've apparently never heard of the cigarette tax, the NFA tax stamp, IRS rulings that are applied retroactively, or the period in US history when the top income tax rate reached 94% just to "soak the rich."

FTA84 · « **Reply #21 on:** March 17, 2009, 04:56:10 PM »

I do not feel outraged.

I do not know how to describe the feeling that I feel about this. It is that familiar feeling you get when you watch a young kid bat a ball against a wall, only to watch it hit him in the face. Or when you watch a dare-devil try to jump a semi-trailer, only to fall 30 feet short and end up sliding under it at 95 mph. The feeling that is accompanied by mumbling to yourself "Well what the hell did you think was going to happen??"

If you give a failing company money, to keep afloat, and they piss it away in bonuses (contractural or not, though the contractural ones would have been evaporated in a bankruptcy proceeding), all I can wonder is 'What the hell did they expect to happen?' You told this company they are too big and too important to fail, so what possible reason do they have for not failing? They can just keep spending like wild knowing the government is going to keep feeding them cash.

If my boss said I was too important to lose, and gave me a $1,000,000 retainer fee. I would probably start working 3 hour days in boxer shorts and doing the minimal to get by.

Perd Hapley · « **Reply #22 on:** March 17, 2009, 06:33:11 PM »

Quote from: wquay on March 17, 2009, 02:41:23 PM

I don't see how you can blame Obama for TARP.

TARP was a result of Paulson and Bernanke telling Congress that the economy as we know it would cease to exist without federal intervention. Not surprisingly, congress capitulated. Of the over $150 billion given to AIG, over $10 billion was paid to Goldman Sachs, Paulson's former firm.

I didn't say Obama was solely to blame. Bush and McCain backed it, but so did Obama. And pardon me, but I will never forget Nancy Pelosi saying that representatives who rejected TARP were unpatriotic. This is shortly after her own party invented the rule that you can never, ever, ever, ever, ever question anyone's patriotism.

Anyhoo, since Obama and his friends are the ones currently whining about the situation that they helped to create...

wmenorr67 · « **Reply #23 on:** March 17, 2009, 06:36:10 PM »

What is even more "funny" a lot of these guys took their bonuses and ran.

MechAg94 · « **Reply #24 on:** March 17, 2009, 07:19:42 PM »

Also, it is on the radio today that the one Congressman Dodd-D is the one who put in the loophole saying bonuses would not be affected by the CEO pay limits tacked on to that bill.

News:

Author Topic: OUTRAGE! OUTRAGE! (Read 14784 times)