AIG created a firestorm over the weekend when it announced it would pay an additional $1 billion in bonuses to its top executives, claiming they are tied to the payouts by contract. Americans were furious after learning their taxpayer money would go towards rewarding executives of the insurance giant who were, for the most part, responsible for its fall.

Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner called AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy, demanding a slash of the enormous bonuses. In response, Liddy claimed that AIG’s “hands are tied” and the contracts which promise the bonuses are “legal, binding obligations and we must proceed with them.”

But it’s the government – how can they NOT intervene? It’s our money THEY gave to AIG. This is what has outraged not only tax-paying Americans, but various state politicians and Obama’s economic team as well. Christina Romer, chairwoman of the administration’s Council of Economic Advisors, told NBC’s “Meet the Press” that the administration is “pursuing every legal means to deal with this.”

Will the Obama administration be able to stop these completely unearned, taxpayer-fed bonuses from ending up in AIG executive’s bank accounts? It’s doubtful. The most we can hope for is a bonus reduction or postponement, so alas, it seems we, the American taxpayers, will be funding the lucrative bonuses of failed AIG executives.

And Americans inch closer to COMPLETE lack of confidence not only with America’s top corporations, but with their own government as well.

Emily Holbrook
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