Obama Guaranteed AIG Bonuses, Then Pretended 'Outrage'
Remember this?
President Obama said he was 'choked up with anger'
US President Barack Obama has expressed anger at $165m (£116m) bonuses pledged to executives of bailed-out insurer AIG, calling the payments "an outrage".
"It's hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165m in extra pay," he said.
He has told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner to "pursue every single legal avenue" to block the bonuses.
Barack Obama "shares our outrage? Yet he signed the stimulus bill which we now find out, guaranteed those very bonuses were protected.
From page H1412 of the Final Stimulus Bill, “SEC. 111. EXECUTIVE COMPENSATION AND CORPORATE GOVERNANCE:
'(iii) The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009, as such valid employment contracts are determined by the Secretary or the designee of the Secretary.â€
