Why AIG outrage rings hollow

President Barack Obama and everyone else in Washington is in a sprint for the microphones to express outrage at the big bonuses for the knuckleheads who screwed up American International Group and threaten to do the same to the rest of the economy.

Watching the coverage the past 24 hours, it would seem AIG just made public its plans to give top employees big bonuses.

Wrong.

AIG disclosed its retention-bonus program more than a year ago, including bonuses directed to those handling the exotic derivatives that got the company and the country into this mess.

The bonuses were essentially a nonissue when AIG got its initial bailout money, almost $150 billion under President Bush in the two months surrounding the presidential election.

Timothy Geithner, then at the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, was a huge proponent and architect of the AIG bailout. So if Obama had strong private opposition to the idea it did not affect his pick for the person who would oversee all bailouts.

The bonuses were again a nonissue when Obama himself increased the bailout to $173 billion last month.

If this were just a usual case of politicians acting like phonies people could roll their eyes and move on. But this time the competition among politicians to outdo each other in the outrage derby will soon put the White House, Congress and the country in a very tough spot...

[Summary: this is another fabricated witch hunt deliberately intended to provide a new evil enemy to distract us from the Democrat's intention to continue expanding government and not notice that the economy remains 'unstimulated'. Highly Recommended > ]

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