Looks Like Public Opinion Can Still Affect Some Change Even If Obama Isn't

The congressional sideshow to deflect anger away from themselves towards the embattled executives at AIG has worked as planned as the executives return 50 mil worth of bonuses which amount to a paltry 3/10ths of 1% of the entire AIG bailout!

3 freaking tenths of one percent of the money was what congress whipped up their mostly left wing fans to demand returned back to the taxpayers. Woowee what an accomplishment, now if we could get that sam anger directed towards congress we'd get somewhere.

By the way AIG execs informed congress of these bonuses and TurboTax Tim has been involved in their existence and creation for over a year now.

So now that this situation has been diffused (as far as congress thinks and hopes), America should now turn their ire inward towards congressional charlatans and demand hearings so Americans can file in to one of these chambers made so famous by Barney and Friends and take to browbeating these crooks and liars for a few weeks to extract exactly what they knew about all this and when they knew it. And that should also include the Messiah himself who also voted for the original bailout as a senator (at least in name only as he mostly was)

Then, we can ask them to return any bonuses and pay increases which they ironically just happened to give themselves in the midst of this self created crisis and smokescreen, and see how they feel taking what they dish out to others so willingly and disingenuously.

Congress's latest pay raise of $4,700 took effect in January and brought congressional salaries to $174,000. I say they should return every dime of that money since they think everyone else who works on the taxpayers dime as they do should be subjected to pay raises linked to their performance as we know their performances have sucked the big Barney.

AIG Employees Will Return About $50 Million of Bonuses

- WSJ.com: New York Attorney General Andrew Cuomo said late Monday that 15 of the top 20 recipients of $165 million in retention bonuses from American International Group Inc.'s Financial Products unit have agreed to give back their bonuses -- amounting to in excess of $30 million in cash.

Mr. Cuomo's office said, in all, AIG FP employees agreed to return about $50 million in bonuses thus far.

"I applaud all the AIG employees that are returning the bonuses," said Mr. Cuomo, though he acknowledged that, for some, returning the bonus was more a response to public outrage than atoning for a sin. He said many employees "had nothing to do with the meltdown in the financial products division," but were trying to "do the right thing."

Mr. Cuomo added that doesn't intend to reveal names of people who return bonuses, but maintained he hadn't decided whether to disclose those who keep them.

AIG said it is "deeply gratified that a vast majority of FP's senior leadership have expressed a willingness to forsake their recent retention payments," adding the company continues to "review the responses of our other FP employees."

It remains to be seen whether the givebacks will be enough to help Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner put the matter behind him. He is expected to testify before Congress on Tuesday, and the bonus controversy has ensnared him as he's tried to get his financial rescue plans off the ground.

Some people at the unit -- fewer than 20 -- resigned, according to a person familiar with the matter. A spokeswoman said despite a handful of resignations among senior executives, the company believes "this situation is manageable."

Many waited until the last minute Monday before signaling their decision; emails flooded in as 5 p.m. approached, but others had yet to respond by then. One concern is potential tax implications of returning money received.

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