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Originally Posted by Azure
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I get it....nobody wants to blame Obama for something he wasn't responsible for.
Well, according to this article, and all these....Obama not only KNEW about the bonuses, but he told Dodd to make sure they were paid out. So really, who is to blame?
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Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, told CNN that Obama officials wanted the language added to an amendment limiting bonuses that could be paid by companies receiving federal bailout money. He said they were afraid that without it, the government would face numerous lawsuits from employees who were promised bonuses.
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http://www.cnbc.com/id/29763023
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March 19 (Bloomberg) -- Senate Banking Committee Chairman Christopher Dodd said the Obama administration asked him to insert a provision in last month’s $787 billion economic- stimulus legislation that had the effect of authorizing American International Group Inc.’s bonuses.
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http://www.bloomberg.com/apps/news?p...d=aT_tMXRy2vDs
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That is simply not what happened. What actually happened is the opposite. It was Dodd who did everything possible -- including writing and advocating for an amendment -- which would have applied the limitations on executive compensation to all bailout-receiving firms, including AIG, and applied it to all future bonus payments without regard to when those payments were promised. But it was Tim Geithner and Larry Summers who openly criticized Dodd's proposal at the time and insisted that those limitations should apply only to future compensation contracts, not ones that already existed. The exemption for already existing compensation agreements -- the exact provision that is now protecting the AIG bonus payments -- was inserted at the White House's insistence and over Dodd's objections. But now that a political scandal has erupted over these payments, the White House is trying to deflect blame from itself and heap it all on Chris Dodd by claiming that it was Dodd who was responsible for that exemption.
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http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/17/dodd/
Clearly Obama wasn't responsible.
Article is pretty damning though.
The timeline.....also damning.
http://firedoglake.com/2009/03/17/tr...r-aig-bonuses/
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What they're talking about is a clause in the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act, which was signed into law by President Obama on Feburuary 17, and places limits on executive compensation for TARP recipients. According to the white paper obtained by FDL written by AIG to explain its legal justification, the $1.2 billion in bonuses they say they are contractually obligated to pay in 2009 are exempt from these limits:
We have been advised that the bonus provisions of the American Recovery and Reinvestment Act of 2009 prohibiting certain bonuses specifically exclude bonuses paid pursuant to pre-February 11, 2009 employment contracts.
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During final negotiations on the $787 billion economic recovery package last week, Senate Banking Committee Chairman Chris Dodd (D-CT) “slipped in a provision to limit bonuses for executives at institutions receiving government bailout funds to a third of their salaries.” The limits go beyond what President Obama had proposed. The caps also apply to a wider circle of employees at financial firms, rather than just the senior executives.
The White House is concerned that the stringent limits “could prompt financial institutions to repay the government too quickly.” Financial firm lobbyists are also worried that they will lose personnel, “driving talented employees to companies that aren’t subject to the regulation or to overseas banks.”
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http://thinkprogress.org/2009/02/15/exec-pay-debate/