It was announced that the bailed out insurance firm, AIG, will be handing out massive bonuses to some employees this week. CQ Politics:
The situation with insurance giant AIG, which received $170 billion in government bailout money and plans to pay out employee bonuses totaling $165 million is “outrageous,” President Obama’s top economic adviser said Sunday, but noted that “the government cannot just abrogate contracts” that were in place.
Word of the bonuses has generated such deep concern in the Obama administration that Treasury Secretary Timothy F. Geithner told the firm they were unacceptable and demanded they be renegotiated....
Unfortunately, AIG says the contracts cannot be broken and the bonuses will be paid. Shame on AIG and their employees. AIG owes the federal government money and they should repay that before they give out bonuses. (The CG Politics page said that these "bonuses" were part of the agreement hammered out during the Bush administration. Why am I not surprised.)
