Oh noes! AIG is going to give out $450M in bonuses! Everybody freak the fuck out! We gotta get that money back!
It doesn't even fucking matter.
I've got a better idea. How about we take the $170B we gave AIG back. $450M is thinking way to small. That's about 0.25% of what taxpayers gave them. And only about $165M (0.09%) in bonuses is going to the people in the really bad part of AIG.
But no. We aren't getting the $170B back. We aren't getting the $450M back. I'll bet my IRA on us not even being able to recover the $165M. Hell, it's a better bet than the fucking stock market after what all these fuckers did to it.
I don't even know what to be more pissed off at anymore. Should I be more pissed off that our government gave away our money without guarantees that it would be used responsibly or even a goddamned plan to fix shit... or should I be more pissed off that they're giving me the goddamned steaksauce with their feigned outrage right now. I fucking see through you.
"How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers?" asks Obama. What the fuck are you smoking? Justify it? They don't need to fucking justify it! They aren't even going to try to justify it! They're just going to take it! Where the fuck have you been? These people had a business plan that was, essentially, to pretend to insure shit, but really just collect premiums. How the fuck do you justify a business plan that needed $170B (...with more to come) to stay afloat. It's a goddamned robbery. How do they justify it... Puh-lease. You'd get better answers asking bank robbers. They'd probably say something like "I'm really poor, and the banks can absorb the losses." AIG doesn't get that excuse. They're all fucking rich, and the entire goddamned world can't absorb the losses. How do they justify it... Fuck off.
We aren't getting the $165M back. We aren't getting the $450M back. We aren't getting the $170B back. Hey, remember back in the beginning when some of you Very Serious (tm) people were saying that taxpayers might actually make money on the bailout? That we were likely to get most of the money back? Ha ha ha ha ha. I try my best not to pay attention to this shit, because when I do, I literally can not fucking function because I'm so full of rage.... and I fucking knew you were wrong.
Oh, and on the off chance that you do manage to recover the $165M, I'm sure your approval numbers will spike and you'll be using it in your campaign ads next cycle. Oh yay. But I see through that too. It's like you authorized fucking bonfires next to a building and when the building inevitably caught fire, you stole all of our possessions to throw on the fire in an attempt to smother it. Then, as the whole fucking pile goes up in flames, you pull a lamp out of the fire, and expect us to be fucking grateful. I mean, I love lamp, but it's not fucking good enough.
It doesn't even fucking matter. I mean, the solution is to spend a trillion+ dollars of deficit money per year for a few years. And that's the "good" option (which, of course, we aren't even going to get; instead we got a watered down stimulus bill that isn't big enough and doesn't even have that much of its money up front). Good luck finding a financer. China has already expressed concern about our debt. Or do you just plan to print money, so that the money I have becomes worthless? How many fucking ways can you rob me?
Here's what matters. First, the Federal Reserve must do it's fucking job: ensure the stability of the financial system (which, you dolts, is different from lowering interest rates to try to boost the economy). Right now, there's a bunch of fake money on the books at a lot of banks. That does not make for a very stable financial system. Most of that fake wealth is in the hands of the wealthy. So, the FDIC needs to take over the failed banks, ensure up to the FDIC limit, and declare the rest unrecoverable. I know the FDIC doesn't have enough money to do this. So, you have to raise taxes. On the wealthy. I'm talking about going big. Maybe 90% on all forms of income over $1,000,000. It has been done in the past - in less difficult financial times. Do it again. Charge the wealthy what you need to stabilize the financial system. They're the ones who made it insolvent in the first place. It's a start to fixing the mess. I'm sure there are people with better ideas.
But of course, none of this is going to happen. Sorry to burst your bubble. Nothing remotely close to fixing the problem is going to happen - just tokens and half-measures. Recovering the AIG bonuses would be a token. We'll be lucky to get that much. Either way, it doesn't even fucking matter.