Bailout $$$

The below information was taken from an e-mail that I got from getliberty.org today.

Obama's Spoiled Red Herring
By Robert Romano
It might be a good time for President Barack Obama to take a week off. And perhaps go fishing.
This week, the President waxed highly indignant that American International Group (AIG), Inc. gave out some $165 million in contractual bonuses after receiving more than one-thousand times that amount, some $173 billion, in taxpayer-guaranteed bailouts.
Unfortunately for the White House, the whole episode ultimately has unwittingly turned into a net negative for the president. It's an irony, and one that could prove quite damaging in 2010.
The New York Times' Adam Nagourney laid out the beginnings of the Great Bonus Scam just on March 15th in some detail in his piece, “Bracing for a Bailout Over Wall Street Bailouts,” writing that “The administration's sharp rebuke of the American International Group on Sunday for handing out $165 million in executive bonuses… marks the latest effort by the White House to distance itself from abuses that could feed potentially disruptive public anger.”
At first the feigned outrage was nothing more than a contrived red herring to divert and deflect public outrage over bailouts away from government that gave undeserving bailouts onto the undeserving firms that gobbled them up.
Only Mr. Obama forgot to wash the pungent scent of the herring off his hands before posturing and preening at the podium. And, instead of throwing off the trail, once the hounds were done ripping the red herring to shreds, they showed up back on the doorstep of the White House, itself.
What they discovered was the fact that the President had actually signed the legislation—the $787 billion “stimulus”—that guaranteed that the controversial contractual bonuses would be paid. What's worse was the admission by Senator Chris Dodd (D-CT) that he inserted the amendment at the explicit direction of Mr. Obama's Treasury.
To be fair to the President, it is possible that he still has not read the 1100-page bill that he made law. So it not altogether surprising that he is the first president to denounce his own legislation—only a month after enacting it. Bravo.
Earlier in the week, the President stated with mock outrage, "This is a corporation that finds itself in financial distress due to recklessness and greed. Under these circumstances, it's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less 165 million dollars in extra pay. How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?"
Well, sir, the way they justify it is by getting to first sign off on it. Pure and simple.
In truth, this is a solid example of pay-to-play corruption. Since 1989, AIG has donated more than $4.37 million to candidates for federal office—including Mr. Obama. In 2008, the company gave $644,218 to candidates, and in return, it received from the Federal Reserve some $173 billion in taxpayer-guaranteed loans. That represents nearly a 27 million percent return on investment 2008 alone.
Of particular note, Senator Chris Dodd received some $103,900 from AIG in 2008—and in the 2009 “stimulus” legislation, he dutifully inserted the amendment that guaranteed that bonuses would be paid by adding language to a spending cap that specifically excluded executive bonuses included in contracts.
The only politician who took more than Senator Dodd, not so coincidentally, was one Barack Obama. He took some $104,332 from AIG in 2008. And he then made sure his benefactors got their bonuses.
In fact, according to OpenSecrets.org, no politician in 2008 took more money from the troubled insurance giant than Mr. Obama.
All of which, of course, leaves a lot of egg on Mr. Obama's face.
Every politician who received donations from AIG, and any other bailout-recipient firms, should return them to the taxpayers who are now paying, as the President noted, to keep these companies afloat. That is the least they can do to avoid the perception—or, more accurately, the reality—of a quid pro quo.
In short, they should put their money where their mouth is.
Instead, Mr. Obama put his foot where his mouth is. Perhaps now that he's finished posturing and preening in front of the prompter, he'll be able to dislodge it while he fishes for some more herrings to distract the American people from what an amateur he really is—as well as what he is really after: the total socialization of American society.
Clearly, the herring isn't the only thing that is red in the Obama White House.
Robert Romano is Senior Editor of ALG News Bureau.
http://alg31blog.timberlakepublishing.com/default.asp?Display=1058

Economic Stimulus - Government

Here is an entry from a blog about leadership and politics that I follow. If you haven't checked out http://orrinwoodward.blogharbor.com/blog, I would highly suggest it. It's very eye opening and informative.

Here is a profound parable that teaches many lessons on personal responsibility and the price of freedom. Thank you Jason Frega for passing this on to me. We do not make people or society better by giving handouts. Only by strengthening the character and work ethic of the people do we improve our communities. Character must be developed through the Dream, Struggle, and Victory process. Failure is never final and without failures, it is nearly impossible to know what you need to improve. Read the parable and please share your thoughts on how it relates to our present bailouts and stimulus packages. God Bless, Orrin Woodward

A chemistry professor at a large college had some exchange students in the class. One day while the class was in the lab the Professor noticed one young man (exchange student) who kept rubbing his back, and stretching as if his back hurt. The professor asked the young man what was the matter. The student told him he had a bullet lodged in his back. He had been shot while fighting communists in his native country who were trying to overthrow his country's government and install a new communist government.

In the midst of his story he looked at the professor and asked a strange question. He asked, 'Do you know how to catch wild pigs?' The professor thought it was a joke and asked for the punch line. The young man said this was no joke. 'You catch wild pigs by finding a suitable place in the woods and putting corn on the ground. The pigs find it and begin to come every day to eat the free corn. When they are used to coming every day, you put a fence down one side of the place where they are used to coming. When they get used to the fence, they begin to eat the corn again and you put up another side of the fence. They get used to that and start to eat again.

You continue until you have all four sides of the fence up with a gate in the last side. The pigs, who are used to the free corn, start to come through the gate to eat; you slam the gate on them and catch the whole herd. Suddenly the wild pigs have lost their freedom. They run around and around inside the fence, but they are caught.

Soon they go back to eating the free corn. They are so used to it that they have forgotten how to forage in the woods for themselves, so they accept their captivity.

The young man then told the professor that is exactly what he sees happening to America. The government keeps pushing us toward socialism and keeps spreading the free corn out in the form of programs such as supplemental income, tax credit for unearned income, tobacco subsidies, dairy subsidies, payments not to plant crops (CRP), welfare, medicine, drugs, etc. While we continually lose our freedoms -- just a little at a time.