Does anyone else find it terribly disgusting that bonuses are being paid to AIG employees with our tax money?

If you haven't been paying attention, this is what I understand to be happening... and if you have and I'm off-base, correct me please.

AIG is made up of a number of subsidiaries. Some of them were financally healthy, but the unhealthy subsidiaries had put them in the hole in a way that was about to bankrupt them.

They told Uncle Sam they were going under.

Uncle Sam gave them gazillions of dollars.

They used a chunk of that money to give bonuses to the ones who ran the subsidiaries that *did* make money, saying that they had contracts with those workers based on performance and that since they met their goals, they had to give them bonuses (in the $100,000+ range). They said if they hadn't given the bonuses the workers would've quit on them.

Sorry.... I do understand how frustrating it might be to find out your company isn't going to come through with the bonus they promised you, but HELLO - WE the taxpayers, didn't enter into that contract, and yet our money is being used save the day for people who are already high-earners, anyway. When other companies find themselves unable to make good on promises they just have to deal with it.

I'm just shocked at the amount of play money that's flowing out to all sorts of people and places!

No one is worth the money they are receiving. I hope we do not give them one more dollar.

Disgusted is too mild a word for how I feel about this crap.
It's hard to be optimistic about the future when the people who's salaries are paid with our taxes appear to be either the biggest nincompoops on the planet or the epitome of greed and callousness.
I mean c'mon - it's not a big secret that bonuses are normal operating procedure in the banking industry. And Geithner didn't know anything about it till recently? Does he expect I'll also buy a bridge in Brooklyn from him?
And Sen. Dodd lying about the last second insertion of the language that allowed the bonuses?
The arrogance of so many politicians, and their assumption that the public has a collective diminished mental capacity is outrageous. Their job is supposed to be to *serve* the American public. If I was a servant and performed the way they have been I'd be fired on the spot if not prosecuted.
AAAAAAARRRRGGGGHHHHHHH!

If we, the taxpayers now own 80% of AIG why the !@#$%^&* are politicians even dealing with this mess? Aren't those with the largest interest in a company the ones who have the biggest vote? Oh wait, silly moi, our elected officials are supposed to be our proxies, and we see what that has gotten us.

This is a real blood boiler for me:

http://www.cnn.com/2009/POLITICS/03/...ml#cnnSTCVideo

I'm afraid after we give those folks our money, CHANGE is all we're gonna have left!

if I am correct 73 employes received $1 million or more each.
it's sick IMO.
how can those people be able to get that much money?
we should be able to find out who are those people and shame them,maybe they would do teh right thing and give back the money!

From what I'm reading, the bonuses were paid in accordance with the employees' contract. If that was part of their package, then the workers are entitled to it. How would you feel if all of a sudden the government said no one would ever receive bonuses or commission again because it's 'not fair' to those who didn't work as hard.

And now for Congress to say they're going to tax the people who received the bonuses 90% of the amount is ridiculous! Better watch your pockets, people, you might be next. LOL!

I think government needs to get their noses out of these companies. If they go bankrupt, they can regroup.

I think Washington has no idea what they're doing right now. What a mess!!

First of all, it shouldn't matter what was in the contract. If my husband's company has a good year, he gets a bonus, if the company is doing poorly, he doesn't. Plain and simple. That's what SHOULD have happened with AIG.
On another note, there is all this complaining about AIG, where is the outrage about all the pork that has been put in the "stimulus"? Heck, the "bridge to nowhere" cost the govt. 2x the amount of the AIG bonuses. We've basically given bonuses to everyone in washington for their "pet" projects... Bonuses that will help them next time around for elections. Where is the outrage over that?

I agree, mom2, about the way I'd feel if I didn't get a bonus to which I was entitled.

My issue is that they are using taxpayer money to pay them. If a company thinks they are healthy enough to offer $1M ANNUAL BONUSES (not salaries - bonuses!) then by George, I think that's great that they are doing such good business!

But... they obviously were in no position to pay out $1M bonuses, and it would seem much more ethical, IMHO, for those top execs to refuse them, given that the taxpayer is the source. I can't imagine that they NEED $1M if they are already highly-paid execs, and *we* the taxpayers weren't the ones who made the contracts with them.

Ideally, I think AIG should have tried to negotiate with those employees to give them their '08 bonus money over a period of years in light of the company's near-insolvency.

The whole AIG thing is sickening...and that company and the others rescued by all of us...must have had half a dozen current/former Federal Reserve chairmen and execs sitting on the board, for years now. Yet they and our govt heads had no clue about the bonuses...?

A bill has just passed the House, to tax some bonuses at 90%

House passes bill taxing Wall Street bonuses - The CNN Wire - CNN.com Blogs

Oh, becky, c'mon... there were no earmarks in that stimulus package!!!!! (chuckles to self)

mom2.... if Bush had given Halliburton execs bonuses like that with taxpayer money....

Nevermind!

Oh, right, I MUST have been mistaken... The $50 million for the National Endowment of the Arts. That REALLY does help stimulate the economy!

I agree with you.

We have a bunch of idiots in Congress right now. They've been given this free rein and now they have absolutely no idea what to do with it and running this country in the ground.

But that is what the Government is doing to us auto workers, they are breaking our contract, we cant get bonuses, our sub-pay is gone and we may have to take a pay cut! How is that fair?? The auto companies are getting a LOAN, the banks were given the money free and clear. The auto workers are mostly middle class and a bonus for us is only about one weeks pay maybe $1000 before taxes and union dues after these fees we are luckly to get $400.
Now I am not whining about losing our bonuses, we didnt make money so its fine not to have bonuses (we dont always get bonuses) but its the cutting our pay that urks me when I see them letting these millionaires keep theirs.

Not Fair, Not Fair, Not Fair

Renee

My dh works in the auto industry, and we'll lose about 10k this year. Everyone in the company is taking a cut to avoid layoffs, they call it shared sacrifice. I think it sucks, but it's fair. I just hope they don't still layoff further down the road anyway.

The AIG bonuses are BS. They fact that they even think they're entitled to any kind of bonus boggles my mind.

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Once the game is over, the king and the pawn go back in the same box.

There's the man to blame right there, for me! There should have been stipulations on that money. . .it was to help with the insurance derivitves mess. . .not to pay overhead! I think it's outrageous, BUT I don't blame the employees getting the bonuses. . .it was part of their contract. I also think it's crazy that the gov can now try to tax it away. . .dangerous ground as far as I'm concerned! Dodd was hoping the American public was too stupid to notice and he allowed it. Now that there is outrage Congress is trying to cover their asses. Idiots all of them!

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"No one believes more firmly than Comrade Napoleon that all animals are equal. He would be only too happy to let you make your decisions for yourselves. But sometimes you might make the wrong decisions, comrades, and then where should we be?"
- George Orwell Animal Farm

>>>Dodd was hoping the American public was too stupid to notice and he allowed it. <<<

Bingo!

How many folks do you know that understand the ramifications of this? Most folks I talk to are more focused on the outrage of bailing out losing propositions and rewarding them with bonuses when the folks I talk to are either outta work or waiting for the axe to fall so they will join the ranks of the unemployed.

Nobody is worth the type of bonuses they received.

These are termed retention bonuses and are not based on profit . They equal 100% of the bonuses received by these employees in 2007. They were negotiated by the former head of the toxic asset division, Joseph Cassano on his way out the door with a 34 million dollar golden parachute and a 1 million dollar per month "consulting" contract which has since been terminated.

The thinking is that (even though these employees caused the meltdown) they are the only ones who could possibly solve the problem.

I rather doubt that any of the bailed out banks have not paid similar bonuses to their wunderkind.

Dodd had actually written a clause in to cap salaries and bonuses for those companies receiving TARP funds, Geither, another Wall Street wunderkind, made him take it out.

I do not think that any of bonus recipients " gets" it. They honestly think that they deserve these salaries and bonuses.

Watch this short discussion from CNBC.
YouTube - Rep. Sherman (D-CA) vs. CNBC's Mark Haines