Monday, March 16, 2009

AIG: O, the Irony

When a Republican administration started shoveling buckets of money into the financial system last year, it was a self-inflicted wound by the party. It’s difficult to criticize Democrats for borrow-and-spend-then-tax-and-spend when Democrats are doing what the Republicans did, albeit on a much vaster scale.

Now that Democrats are in charge, it’s their turn to build the petard on which someday they may be hoisted. In his latest example of ad hoc governing, the President wants to rescind $165 million in bonus payouts to AIG executives, many of whom are responsible for AIG's (and the country’s) financial debacle. If the Administration does find a legal way to cancel contractual salary obligations (I hold no brief for AIG, having never done business with it or been a shareholder), I can foresee a day when a Republican President, citing President Obama’s precedent, overrides the labor contracts of auto companies that receive bailout money.

If it were my choice, I’d gripe about the bonuses a lot, then pay them. The ship is going down, and a bad guy has seized one of the lifeboats. There are bigger things to worry about, so just let it go.

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