Who Will Play Robin Hood and Get the Money from the Fat Cats at AIG?

My hero and the first President of the U.S. I have been proud to say is my president in a very long time feels that AIG (American International Group) has financial problems because of pure greed and a reckless attitude. His mission is to stop AIG from giving their top paid employees bonuses and making them richer than they already are.

Although I was in Paris over the weekend we got CNN in English. I was aware that AIG planned to give hefty bonuses to their executives. Truly how "they" sleep at night boggles my mind. How anyone can make that kind of money (including sports figures and celebrities) is an outrage to me and should be even more outrageous to those of you who are out of work or truly living paycheck to paycheck.

AIG has received money in the form of federal aid! President Obama will do everything in his means and in his legal minds' means to stop the bonuses.

Said Obama: "All across the country, there are people who work hard and meet their responsibilities every day, without the benefit of government bailouts or multimillion-dollar bonuses. And all they ask is that everyone, from Main Street to Wall Street to Washington, play by the same rules." Huffington Post

This is so obscene. When I read the numbers I want to shake these fat cats until they take out their wallets and distribute it to Americans. AIG has received over $170 billion from the federal government. The big shots at AIG were reported to be receiving $165 million as just part of a whole package of about $450 million.

AIG has the nerve - although that is not a strong enough word - to tell us that they lost over $60 billion for the last quarter of last year.

Barney Frank, Congressman from Massachusetts, let us know that the Federal Reserve Board gave AIG its first bailout and then Congress passed legislation giving them more help just in case! We also found out that AIG used over $90 billion in federal aid to pay out banks both in the U.S. and oversees. Some of these banks already got huge United States government bailouts.

You should know who some of the companies are that got the most money from AIG: Goldman Sachs at $12.9 billion, France's Societe Generale at $11.9 billion, Germany's Deutsche Bank at $11.8 billion, and Britain's Barclays PLC at $8.5 billion. Merrill Lynch, which also is undergoing federal scrutiny of its bonus plans, received $6.8 billion as of December 31.

I used to have a bumper sticker on my car that said "If you aren't outraged you aren't paying attention." I took it down when Obama became President but it should go back up not because of anything he has done but because of the audacity of these companies to think....what? That they can get away with this kind of incompetence? That the American people are too stupid to realize what is happening? That we are sick and tired of people making $40 million a year getting a $15 million bonus so they can buy yet another yacht?

I agree - these fat cats should lose their jobs. They'll still have their money but perhaps like Madoff some of that money can be legislated to go to charities. It is time to stop this. If this sounds like I am calling for a Socialist government, then I am. I see my friends out of work. These are good, smart people who have homes and families. What happens to them? They worked as hard as any AIG executive. Let's turn the tables and see what it really is like to be walking in the average person's shoes.

AIG has agreed that they would not pay out any more money but guess what? It's too late for that. Someone needs to play Robin Hood.

Sources

Huffington Post

Associated Press