Reading & Outrage

"No money shall be drawn from the treasury, but in consequence of appropriations made by law."
-Article I. § 9

Congress last month passed a bill that President Obama signed into law, allowing AIG executives to keep their bonuses. The bill included an amendment from Senator Chris Dodd to limit executive bonuses strictly, but it included an exemption for bonuses agreed to "on or before February 11, 2009." That allowed AIG to proceed with the bonuses.

Congress yesterday expressed outrage upon learning that the bonuses had been distributed.

What did this story reveal?

1. Dishonesty - Sen. Dodd denied knowledge of the exemption on Tuesday, then was forced to admit that he, himself, drafted the exemption on Wednesday.
2. Victimization - Sen. Dodd blamed the Obama administration for pressuring him to include the exemption; Pres. Obama, at a town hall meeting, said: "The buck stops with me; I'm the president...(moments later)..."We didn't draft these contracts; we've got a lot on our plate."
3. Hypocricy - The Senate Finance Committee dragged AIG CEO Edward Libby to Washington, so that they could unfairly grill him for distributing the bonuses WHICH THEY AGREED COULD BE DISTRIBUTED WHEN THEY VOTED IN FAVOR OF THE BILL THAT INCLUDED THIS EXEMPTION!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

As my use of elite caps indicates, what most upsets me about this whole situation is that congress votes in favor of a bill and then a month later expresses outrage at a provision within the same bill.

To me this suggests indolence or incompetence. Either congressmen are not reading the bills they are voting on, or they are incapable of comprehending what they are reading.

I wish Libby would have grown some stones and lashed back at the hypocritical congressmen who told him he could do something and then condemned him for doing it.

The fact that Barney Frank angrily demanded the names of those who accepted the bonuses is UNBELIEVABLE. Rep. Frank agreed that those particular executives should receive their scheduled bonuses, and now he wants them to be publicly shamed for their greed.

Every American, especially the AIG executives, should be outraged at our joke of a congress.

Our lawmakers must be made accountable for what they lie about and what they fail to read.