The AIG Scandal

All over the nation, tax payers are heated with anger over the absurd AIG scandal. AIG, an insurance company that remains afloat solely due to the bailout, recently gave out $165,000,000 in bonuses to the company's executives. To put it another way, taxpayer's money was distributed in such a way that the rich are getting richer and the purpose of the bailout is retracted in one fell swoop. The current CEO of AIG, Edward Liddy insisted that these bonuses were put in before he became CEO. As he is looking to pick up the pieces and salvage the company, everyone is looking for someone to blame. Even the DailyShow with Jon Stewart created a skit regarding who is to blame. Congress concluded that Senator Chris Dodd was heavily a part of this and is to blame for putting in this provision.

President Obama, who so vehemently encouraged Congress to pass this bailout, called AIG reckless and greedy. In a two minute speech regarding the scandal (shown below), Obama said he asked Secretary of Treasury Geithner to block these bonuses. He remained positive, stating we need reform and taxpayer's need protection. A few days ago, Obama went on The Tonight Show with Leno and asked the American people to cut Geithner some slack. He insists that the Secretary of Treasury has so much on his plate and that he is doing an excellent job. Meanwhile, Edward Liddy is asking for those who were paid over $100,000 dollars in bonuses to repay the company half the bonus. The good news is some employees have already given back their entire bonus.

However, this AIG outrage proves that there are definitely holes in the bailout. Now that the money is distributed, it is in the hands of the executives of those companies. As proven by AIG, corruption and mismanagement can easily prevail, and all that taxpayer money and the effort that went into earning it would be for naught. Let us hope that this is a rare occurrence and the remainder of the $700 billion is put into good use!