AIG wants to give $165 million of its more than $170 billion in bailout funds to executives.
AIG’s decision to use $165 million in bailout funds for executive bonuses makes most people, including Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke, wonder why the government bailed out the insurance giant in the first place.
CEO Edward Liddy says “AIG’s hands are tied” and that the company must honor contractual agreements regarding executive pay that were finalized before the company received government funds. It’s amazing that Mr. Liddy thinks ANYONE at AIG should receive any sort of bonus after the government shelled out $170 billion just to save the troubled company. Taxpayers already own 80 percent of AIG, and now we're learning that our hard-earned money is going to the people who made bad bets and brought it down in the first place. It’s time for the executives to forget their bonuses and thank the rest of the country for helping them keep their jobs.
Thankfully, President Obama Monday said that his administration will “pursue every legal avenue” to stop the $165 million in bonuses from going out. To his credit, the president has already gotten the company to cut bonuses by 30 percent, but why didn’t the government regulate the bailout money more closely in the first place? People across the country are gladly taking pay cuts to keep co-workers employed, and it's embarrassing that companies receiving bailout money haven't followed suit.
