I'm Sick

No, my health is not failing. I'm just sick of Congress, Republicans and Democrats alike. Yesterday I watched the Senators grill the new head of AIG over 165 million dollars worth of bonuses they paid employees with tax money. At first blush this seems preposterous. Our tax dollars are bailing AIG out of financial disaster. And they are giving some employees up to 6 million dollars for putting AIG in the position it's in.

But a little research tells a different story. Yes, AIG did pay these bonuses. But these bonuses are part of a legal, binding employment contract. Congress says they shouldn't use tax money for this purpose. Well, our illustrious congress gave AIG this money with no strings attached. They could have spent the whole 170 BILLION (the total amount of the bailout) on Hooters parties and jello shots and the congress could do nothing about it. This is what happens when you pass bills without reading them.

Rep. Olympia Snow inserted an amendment into the bill that limited bonuses to 100K but the democrats (Chris Dodd) had it removed and replaced with language that mandated bonuses in contracts signed in 2008 be honored. In effect what our brilliant representatives in Congress said to AIG was "you will pay these bonuses".

Now that the public has found out about it the congress is up in arms holding hearings looking for someone to lynch. One Senator wants the names of the people receiving the bonuses so that the government can sue to recover the money. Some of these employment contracts were signed in Maryland and subject to local law. One of the laws says that if you breech a contract you will pay double the amount in question plus attorney's fees. Naturally, these people say bring it on.

Another Senator wants to pass a law taxing these bonuses 100%. There are constitutional prohibitions to this kind of law. Exposte Facto and Bills of Attainder are terms that come to mind. These laws will never pass a court review and these senators damn well know it.

I probably don't need to point this out but the senators making these outrageous demands are all Democrats.

The bottom line is if the government had not gotten involved with private enterprise we wouldn't be facing these problems anyway. If congress is looking for a lynching they should start in the Whitehouse and work their way down.