Bonus Bailout Tax?!
Preface:
I haven't written any articles in a while and I am sorry for the delayed releases of some. I'm working on it. This is one that isn't really delayed much but more kind of held under wraps for a few extra days.
ARTICLE:
Anytime I've turned on my TV in the past week, I fail to accomplish my goal: escape reality. What I mean is that when I'm watching a drama or a sitcom or any other show, I'm attempting to escape reality and just dive into the show. Not anymore. There is not a single branch of media that isn't covering the recent events which have plagued not only our economy but our national government and President Obama's reputation. As I've mentioned before in my articles, I do not like Obama all that much but I still hope for a successful term in office and moreover I hope that his term is not a failure. Barak Obama is my president and I will respect him as such.
There are recent events which have plagued his administration's reputation, along with his own, by having a notion of blatant irresponsibility and outright incompetency for crisis management in these rough economic times. What I mean, really, is that even though Obama came into our government in a time of economic hardship, he's almost made it worse more than making it better. Our government is now way deeper into debt than its ever been, and he's going to be spending more than any other president in history has. I don't know if he is the one calling the shots on this or if it's the DNC, but whoever it is needs to look at what they're going to be doing to our country and our economy. It's the same concept as AIG.
AIG is a corporation that recently got a rather large amount of money as a government “loan.” Like a car loan (where you own the car but the bank “owns” the car until you've paid them back in full), our government “owns” 80% of AIG yet leaves ownership of the company in their executive officers' hands. I'm definitely not in a position to be able to criticize the CFOs and CEOs of a major corporation such as AIG, but their greed outweighs their drive for success. What I mean is that you have these executive officers making a minimum of seven figures a year for their income, not to mention the benefits the company is giving them and such. These officers are not even willing to take a paycut, sacrifice one of the private jets, even sell one of the cars, in order to make an attempt on saving the company before it drives straight into the ground. Instead, they beg our government for help. And, being an administration which doesn't want to look bad by “letting” a major corporation such as AIG go belly-up, they almost blindly gave them the money. I say blindly because they rushed the bailout bill for AIG through the senate, house, and through Obama's new office.
How much money exactly did the Obama administration just sign over to AIG? Approximately $180 billion, or $180,000,000,000. This is your money that the government just gave over to AIG. Like an auto loan, our government now “owns” the company until the money is paid back. If it even gets paid back before they go out of business. Thats the equivilent of owning approximately 80% of the company. With the majority control we have you would think our government would step up and save the company right? Well... no. Actually, they did just the opposite. They left control completely in the hands of the company to do what they wish with our money. Where did this bailout money go? Nobody really knows what happened to it, save a small amount.
I should say more that we don't know exactly how much of it went to what, save a small amount. The majority of that bailout money is no longer in our country. AIG used it to “pay off” foreign banks that they had deals and loans with, in essence bailing out other countries instead of leaving that in the hands of their governments. Everyone says we shouldn't interfere with other countries and focus on ourselves more, but then this happens and nobody says a word. Hypocrites! Some of the bailout money went towards the company, of course. I would hope it would. But there's a really small amount of that money that is very controversial. If you've been watching the news, you'll have heard the number $165,000,000 a lot lately. Thats the total amount AIG was supposed to be giving out in bonuses, most of which came from our bailout money that we gave them. Why? Because they were “under contract” to give these bonuses to these people. At least thats what they tell us. Then again, as its come to my attention as of this morning, they lied about even the bailout amount! According to an article in the Boston Globe printed on March 23, “Documents turned over to the Connecticut attorney general show that American International Group Inc paid out over $218 million in bonuses, more than the previously disclosed $165 million, published reports said on Saturday.” Want a comparison on how much this actually is? The $218 million is just under 10% of the total amount in bailouts given to AIG. Even more, let's take a look at Obama's estimated budget for 2010 which at the moment is estimated at $3.6 trillion, or $3,600,000,000,000. This is larger than the entire economy of China, France, Germany, and Japan. The “bailout bonus” for AIG is only about .005% of that. I think that budget amount is a definite cause for concern, don't you? People said that the deficit under former President George W. Bush (“Bush 42”) was the largest in history, but this estimated amount dwarfs that.
And now, to seek “retribution” for their actions, the Obama administration has overstepped the lines of “constitutional” by proposing a 90% tax on that bailout money given to the AIG employees. I need to point out here that before January 2009, Meryl Lynch did the same thing: gave out a bonus with bailout money. Is this money going to get taxed? No. The Obama administration has said that they would be exempt because it is not within the 2009 calendar year. Must I also point out that Meryl Lynch was a major financial supporter of the Obama campaign? I felt that it needed to be mentioned because it demonstrates that this tax is targeted specifically at a select group of people. Which is unconstitutional.
All in all, AIG made their mistakes, and us as taxpayers are now footing the bill, per se, until they can get themselves back in line and turned back around. Fair? NO! Was it even our choice to begin with? No. And for swinging our Government's vote and stealing our money for their own personal gains, what did AIG get? Media controversy. Go ahead, take your bonuses. But please, AIG, what happened to the rest of the money we gave you?