This saying is well known and I heard it frequently while in the Army. Simply put, if your purpose is to sow discontent, cast aspersions or just complain then move aside. Like most Americans I'm really pissed about the AIG bonuses; but I'm not really mad about Timothy Geithner's or the President's role in bonus mess. The GOP, however, has seized upon this issue and their leaders (Boehner, McConnell, Kyl, etc.) now want probes into what was known about the bonuses and when it was known. Is this really getting us anywhere? I'm not a lawyer but if AIG entered into contracts that required the payment of retention bonuses then those bonuses have to be paid. Now I suppose Congress could have been clear that bailout funds could not be used to make those payments and if Mr. Geithner knew about the bonuses before hand and didn't make Congress aware then that was a mistake.
My bottom line is that this has become a distraction and so much of one that the Dow is not happy and retreated yesterday and is down by 86 points at the time I'm writing this. Last week and early this week it finally appeared that the market was gaining traction and now this.
So, if all the GOP is willing to do is point fingers and call for probes then my suggestion is that they get the hell out of the way.
3 comments:
Hey Bluedog! Thanks a bunch for the link. Our new url is www.themudflats.net
You've still got our old one up.
Keep up the good work!
Cheers,
AKMuckraker@The Mudflats
Agreed on the GOP - time to stop playing partisan politics on both sides. Of course, we know that will never happen.
As far as the market reaction, it was up 500 points yesterday - expect a day or two of rest or pullback after a rally like that. Plus, we just rallied about a thousand points in less that two weeks, about a 15-20% gain. So don't put much reliance on the market's fall.
I think most people are ready to move forward from the issues you speak of with AIG - and we don't want a government that can tax 90% anytime it wants to take money from someone that they are legally entitled to receive. Is it bad PR and maybe unethical to keep the money? Maybe. But the government simply cannot exercise the powers they want to get that money back. I hate it in a way, but at the same time the lack of ability of the Feds to do anything is one of the great features of our form of government. In many countries, a group of soldiers would come to your house, beat up you and your family, then take your money and throw you in jail or kill you. I say let them keep it and lets move on - we can't change the mistakes we have already made, but geez lets learn from them for once!
When the market went down to 6500, the GOP and all their paid pundits said it was a reflection on Obama's policies (not a hangover from 8 years of misrule). Now that it's up more than 15% from it's low, they don't want to give Obama credit.
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