AIG,  Barack Obama

The Obama Honeymoon IS NOW Officially Over – AIG Bonus Flap Depletes Obama Political Capital

March 17, 2009 /
obama-and-aig

It’s over for Obama, baby.

The political honeymoon, that is.

President Obama’s apparent inability to block executive bonuses at insurance giant AIG has dealt a sharp blow to his young administration and is threatening to derail both public and congressional support for his ambitious political agenda.

Politicians in both parties flocked to express outrage over $165 million in bonuses paid out to executives at the company, demanding answers from the president and swamping yesterday’s rollout of his efforts to spark lending to small businesses.

The populist anger at the executives who ran their firms into the ground is increasingly blowing back on Obama, whom aides yesterday described as having little recourse in the face of legal contracts that guaranteed those bonuses.

White House press secretary Robert Gibbs, peppered with questions about why the president had not done more to block the bonuses at a company that has received $170 billion in taxpayer funds, struggled for an answer yesterday afternoon. He explained that government lawyers are “looking through contracts to see what can be done to wrest these bonuses from their recipients.”

And, with Obama about to seek even more $ billions to aid the financial system, political outrage is certainly not sufficient to mollify an angry public. The White House initially tried to obscure the flap by blaming President Bush but they have not answered as to why they failed to block these bonuses while they were authorizing an additional $30 Billion in new loans to AIG.

The AIG Bonus Flap has happened on Obama’s watch and he can either take responsibility and expend more of his his political capital or continue to make excuses and pass blame on the previous Bush Administration.

Which will it be, Mr. President?

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3 Comments

  • Ron

    March 17, 2009 at 7:58 am

    I believe the bonus payout excesses at AIG are just the tip of the iceberg of what is happening with the other Wall Street bailouts including Bank of America.

    Working productive Americans are bailing out the same crooks that destroyed our economy along with 45% of the wealth in the world. Now the American taxpayers and our posterity will be forced to live a far lower standard of living with reduced prosperity and opportunities due to the accumulated national debt to fund the bailouts and once again we will pay the price.

    Washington has bailed out the banks, Wall Street & their Washington special interests and much of the cost is added to the national debt to by paid by this and future generations while real estate and investments continue to fall. I believe Washington plans to monetize the debt in future years while they tax and destroy our remaining wealth by depreciating the dollar.

    To stop this wealth attack, the Campaign to Cancel the Washington National Debt By 12/21/2012 Constitutional Amendment is beginning now in the U.S. See: http://www.facebook.com/group.php?gid=67594690498&ref=ts

  • Ling

    March 17, 2009 at 8:28 am

    What’s happened here is that the Wall Street banks have ripped off the public by scaring everybody with financial collapse and things like that. We should call their bluff, and take back all the bailout money. The government owns 80% of AIg. They should sell their share to the highest bidder, and let AIG face the market forces.