Outrage

There was a fury of outrage yesterday. Even being slightly sheltered from news on Mondays, I heard about the whole AIG bonus fiasco.

I wasn’t very surprised.

Don’t get me wrong, I was irritated. Not as much as the cash hungry swindlers at AIG, but at our government. This is what happens when the government plays in the private sector. Corruption and waste. When will we realize that a swelling federal government BREEDS waste like rabbits.

Now, I can almost understand the argument from AIG that they were obligated by contract to pay these bonuses which will actually top out at 400 million, and that after all they want to retain their top notch people. I would argue however that given the condition of their company, maybe these people really aren’t that “top notch” and really eliminating some of these people should have been written into the loan agreement in the first place.

Come to think of it, why weren’t a lot of things written into the $173 BILLION dollar loan to AIG? Are you telling me that the average Joe is having trouble getting a $30 thousand dollar loan to buy a car without copious amounts of paperwork, fact checking, and verifications, but our government is willing to hand out $173 BILLION dollars to a company that has a proven track record of mismanagement, without even specifying that certain measures would have to be taken and guaranteed? I would think things like executive pay cuts and rescinding all bonuses until a percentage of the loan is paid back would be REALLY high on the list of things to include?

How can we be irate with AIG with out first being furious with our own moronic and fiscally irresponsible government (not leaving anyone out here, it was the Bush Administration that bailed AIG out)?

Now think about this. We have bailed out AIG, Citigroup, Bank of America, and a host of smaller banks to the tune of a TRILLION dollars or more. Bailed out Freddie and Fannie for HUNDREDS OF BILLIONS of dollars. Allotted $787 BILLION dollars for a ridiculous stimulus package that has no hope of stimulating the economy, in fact would have been more beneficial to the economy in the long term if it were never passed. Signed up for an 8% increase in the federal budget for the rest of the fiscal year. Passed that same budget extension with over $7 BILLION in pork projects.

But OUR President is proposing a plan that will begin charging veterans for medical care through their private insurance.

Veterans, dealing with issues related to their service, having letters sent to their private insurance company for compensation to the VA hospital for their treatment.

All to save $540 MILLION dollars.

Now who is it that we should be outraged at again?