Those nasty AIG bonuses have just stuck themselves in nearly everyone's craw. While I have no problem with them, countless others do. But the math is really interesting, and so is a glaring contradiction.
If we accept the numbers as given, we know that AIG has received $190,000,000,000 in government loans and has distributed $175,000,000† in bonuses. Hence, we can rightfully conclude that the total amount of money distributed as bonuses is less than one thousandth of that $190 billion, at .00092 or .092 percent. In strictly percentage terms, the amount given to employees in the form of bonuses is utterly trivial.
Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats (and a few Republicans) are fomenting outrage over this infinitesimal distribution of "taxpayer" money. But compare this current outrage to Mr. Obama's own defense of alleged pork in his stimulus bill; read what he said on February 3, 2009, in an interview with Katie Couric. Mr. Obama rebuffed critics who claimed his bill was filled with "pork":
No doubt such absurd behavior by a government leader is precisely "what tends to happen in this town."
Peace through dissent.
†It is reported that the Connecticut attorney general has determined that the total amount of the bonuses is $218,000,000. But this hardly changes the math.
©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
If we accept the numbers as given, we know that AIG has received $190,000,000,000 in government loans and has distributed $175,000,000† in bonuses. Hence, we can rightfully conclude that the total amount of money distributed as bonuses is less than one thousandth of that $190 billion, at .00092 or .092 percent. In strictly percentage terms, the amount given to employees in the form of bonuses is utterly trivial.
Barack Obama and his fellow Democrats (and a few Republicans) are fomenting outrage over this infinitesimal distribution of "taxpayer" money. But compare this current outrage to Mr. Obama's own defense of alleged pork in his stimulus bill; read what he said on February 3, 2009, in an interview with Katie Couric. Mr. Obama rebuffed critics who claimed his bill was filled with "pork":
So, what's happened, and this is what tends to happen in this town is people have plucked out this program or that program that doesn't look particularly stimulative, the contraceptives issue being a primary example. If you add all that stuff up, it accounts from less than 1 percent of the overall package. Now that doesn't mean that the package can't improve and that's what I said to the leadership last night, "Let's improve it. Let's make this a package that is big enough for the moment, and is really focused on the American people." But I also wanna make sure that people don't get some notion which I think has been systematically promoted out there that this is full of silly spending 'cause it's not.In other words, Mr. Obama is content overlooking trivial amounts of "taxpayer" money used for porky or pet projects. But he is not so tolerant when someone else tries to get away with something similar, even if one factors in the very real fact that AIG IS A TAXPAYER! All AIG is doing is distributing its own tax money -- refunded in a set of loans -- to its employees (who will then be taxed on it). Yet Mr. Obama has a problem with that.
No doubt such absurd behavior by a government leader is precisely "what tends to happen in this town."
Peace through dissent.
†It is reported that the Connecticut attorney general has determined that the total amount of the bonuses is $218,000,000. But this hardly changes the math.
©2009/Contratimes. All Rights Reserved.
