Obama and his lackeys Christopher Dodd and Barney Frank continue their orgy of populist bashing of AIG for daring to honor pre-existing contracts awarding executive bonuses. But three articles in The Wall Street Journal on the same day (March 19) indicate the staggering hypocrisy of the whole campaign.
The first, by Brody Muller and T.W. Farnum, pointed out the amusing fact that while Obama and Dodd are conducting their Orwellian Two Minutes’ Hate against AIG – greasing the skids for their plan to start setting limits to compensation in private industry generally – they were themselves the top recipients of AIG campaign donations in 2008. Sen. Obama was number one, receiving $104,332, and the odious Dodd came in second, receiving $103,900 – both way above all other recipients’ donations. (Another major recipient of AlG contributions was Sen. Charles Schumer [D-NY)] who has also spoken out against the bonuses).
The second story, by Jonathan Weisman, points out that the crucial amendment to the stimulus bill that allowed the payment of those bonuses was authored by – Christopher Dodd! Dodd originally denied knowledge of this, but then said his “staff” changed his original language at the behest of the White House, specifically that of Treasury Secretary Geithner (who had earlier professed ignorance about the AIG bonuses). But then why did Dodd leave his name on it?
Finally, the third article, by James Hagerty and Aaron Lucchetti, reports the interesting fact that Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac, both bailed out at massive cost to the U.S. taxpayers and both the key enablers of the mortgage mess (though not tax cheats like Geithner!), have announced that they are paying bonuses to their executives. These bonuses are being given, even though the Treasury has promised to pony up $200 billion to keep the corrupt agencies alive.
And the bonuses aren’t chump change, either. Fannie says she will be handing out bonuses between $470,000 and $611,000 each. (Freddie has yet to announce the size of its bonuses.) Between the two, they will be giving $210 million in “retention” bonuses. Eighty percent of Freddie’s employees, and 61% of Fannie’s, will receive bonuses.
Why have Obama, Dodd, Schumer, Barney Frank, and other prominent Dems not criticized the Freddie or Fannie bonuses? Because those are government-sanctioned entities, and government is never to be criticized. The metanarrative they are propagating is that it is wicked private enterprise that is to blame for all our ills.
