The US Congress is having hearings today to discuss the AIG bonus fiasco. The very people that created the mess are the ones wringing their hands and stamping their feet. They had an opportunity limit these contractually sound bonuses in the Stimulus bill. However, in a closed conference committee meeting with the House, Senate, and White House the legislation was removed from the stimulus bill and replaced with a stipulation drafted by Chris Dodd (D) (Conn) who is on the sitting Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee. Why are the politicians who stepped on each other to get to the microphone 6 months ago now grandstanding over 1/10% of the Taxpayers money GIVEN to AIG. As I understand it AIG entered into legal contracts with employees for bonuses based on performance. If AIG and said employees agreed to the terms and conditions of these contracts 2,3,4 years ago, they are legally binding contracts as long as the employees met the terms of those contracts. Now we have our federal legislative branch looking to foist themselves into private contracts. That is a slippery slope. It stands to reason that this would not be the last time they would do such a thing.
We the people of these United States of America should stand up now and make it known to our legislative body that we do not condone this activity. We stand to lose one of the bedrocks of our nation should we not protest this blatant power grab.
These are the same folks that have passed the largest appropriations bills in the history of this nation without so much as reading the legislation. They have admitted this.
Where is it going to stop? We are pissing away the future of this nation every day.
Price,
ReplyDeleteIt's not going to stop. Simple as that. It won't stop until people stop caring about more than American Idol or Grey's Anatomy. Knowledge is power. And these people don't want power or respinsibility because the government has made it seem like they shouldn't carry any responsibility. The same goes for the government and people in the legislation. Doctors "practice" medicine. People that are in charge of our country are apparently taking the same mind set about our country.