AIG is a big company (as if that weren’t obvious) and even within the division that gave us the toxic credit default swaps, there were still many other, legitimate business activities that actually earned money for AIG. Most of the bonuses that we’re talking about were promised to people in these other business practices, who had nothing to do with credit default swaps, to keep them from jumping ship to other financial companies.

How would you react if you worked for a company doing good work, found out that the company was in trouble and started circulating your resume, had your boss come in and write a contract promising you a bonus if you stayed on through next spring, and then when the bonus got paid, Congress voted to take it all back from you? Just asking…

Second: Make no mistake about it: these bank HAVE FAILED. All this talk about “let the banks fail” is nonsense. They have failed and now we’re simply in damage control mode. Do you know what would happen if AIG went bankrupt and had to liquidate it’s assets? The law of supply and demand says that if AIG starts selling trillions of dollars of stock, the price of all of the stock is going to fall substantially. THAT is why we the people HAD to bail out this company. It’s in OUR own best interests. Do you think your 401k statement looks pitiful now? Wait until one of these “too big to fail” banks fails and the government doesn’t bail it out.

What we should all be asking ourselves now is: how do we make sure that a future bank never gets “too big to fail.” It’s not as though this is the first time in US History that this has happened. So how about if we make it the last?

Little government is just as important in social issues as it is in fiscal issues, if not more so. After all, you can usually work with whatever ham-fisted tax regime is concocted by politician.

England might not have separation of church and state in law, but we’re so much better at putting it into practice.

Who exactly has restricted your faith? Last I checked, religious folks were in the majority in this country. Our kids even have to say One Nation Under God…and God is mentioned on almost every Federal building, yet I don’t believe in him/her/it. So are those buildings not mine as well? Republicans during the last election wanted to make this a “Christian” country, and tried to market Obama as a Muslim. First of all, who cares if he was? It’s just another religion like the rest. Secondly, I thought we left England and set up the Constitution to get rid of religion in politics, no?

I believe a woman already standing and living on planet earth has more rights than an unborn child that she conceived after being raped or molested by her father, yes. And if she were to die from childbirth, I think she has the right to choose life for herself. Do I think abortion should be used as birth control? Nope, it’s a terrible thing for sure. But I do think people should be able to make up their own minds. As for your grandfather/mother – yes, if he would have wanted it, absolutely. I hope someone pulls the plug on me if I am like that, and I will stipulate it before I get there. Why should the govt be able to tell me if I can do that or not?

As for what I can do in my bedroom – if I were gay, people would be trying to legislate it as a crime (yes, they still do that in parts of the country). They would make marriage illegal between 2 people who love each other, yet make it legal for people who end up in divorce 50% of the time anyway…even though divorce tears at any family values that marriage amendments proclaim to protect. I am married, and some of my gay friends are married. What happened to my marriage when they did it? Nothing. Same thing that would happen to yours and everyone else’s. This is what I mean by legislating in the bedroom.

As I said earlier, people cannot have it both ways. You don’t want any interference by the government in your life financially, yet you are OK with it to make choice illegal for women (at the expense of the child that you don’t want on public assistance), ban gay marriage, stop immigration, or take away civil rights. You either want government to legislate or you don’t – you cannot have it on a per-incident basis and use that as a political stance.

Government comes from the people. Our Constitution defines what government can and cannot do.

I have never met anyone who wanted to force God on people. You can make up your own mind on that matter. I have met plenty of people who would like to restrict how I practice my faith . . .hopefully government will protect me from them.

The role of the US Government is to protect the weak. If you believe that unborn children should not be protected . . . I guess we will have to disagree on that one. Regardless, those of us who believe that an unborn child, no matter how they were conceived deserves a chance at life, have the same right to free speech as those who believe that “inconvenient” life should be snuffed out. I have a grandfather who is suffering from Alzheimers, maybe my grandmother should exercise “choice” regarding his life as well. After all, an unborn child in the second trimester is more “viable”.

What you do in your bedroom is your business, but if you are going to use law and public policy and public money to improve your financial situation because of what you do in your bedroom, then citizens have the right to speak about what you do in the bedroom.

The will of the people was heard in California last year, was it not? Did our system work that time?

If you read the entire article, it’s not about the government trying to take control at all. The article is about Wall Street manipulating things so THEY can take control. Anyone can talk about free markets, capitalism, etc, but this article was not about that at all.

You always say things about “less government” but I seem to remember something about government assistance being OK on your site. Am I mistaken or was that someone else’s site?

I just think it’s funny that some Republicans want less government in the markets, but at the same time they think it’s ok to force God on people, make choice illegal, want to make laws saying what we can do in the bedroom, and outlaw people who love each other from getting married. Is it more govt or less govt that they really want? Cause it seems like “more” to me.

The less we have to deal with the government, the better off we are.

That said, Tim Geithner wrote the AIG bailout during the Bush admin. Furthermore, if it was a mistake for the Bush admin to bailout these banks, why is Obama trying to do more of the same – wasn’t he all about change?

If we are going to assign blame to the Bush admin, then we must also consider that the Bush admin warned us about Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac on numerous occasions, starting in 2001. In 2005, Dems in Congress resisted any attempt to reform those institutions. Raines, the CEO of Fannie, made off with $90 million in bonuses in 2004. It is important to remember that he was compensated by the number of mortgages that he insured – not the quality of such mortgages.

Once we deal with FM and FM, then we have to go back to the Community Reinvestment Act under President Clinton in 1999 that pressured banks to make risky loans . . . that FM and FM then insured . . . and then other banks bought stock in FM and FM . . . and then Barney Frank said that Fannie and Freddie were sound financially . . .

Reps and Dems both share blame, but the solution is not to increase government interference in the market, but to eliminate it. President Obama is seeking for greater government control in the free market. It was a bad idea under FDR, it was a bad idea under W, and it will end badly under President Obama.

These banks were not allowed to fail because politicians from both parties were getting huge sums of money from financial institutions. Money that you and me and our children will have to pay back.

Chris Dodd rec’d $103K from AIG alone
Barack Obama rec’d $101K from AIG – in 18 months as a Senator. President Obama and the liberals in Congress (libs on both sides of the aisle) are using the AIG flap to seize more power for the federal government.

Why is our President and our Congress giving our money to failing banks? Furthermore, Tim Geithner, Chris Dodd and Barack Obama all knew about the AIG bonuses some time ago and did nothing until they made news.

Greed and lust for power is not confined to the free market. It also exists in the White House and in the Capitol Rotunda.

Trusting our government to take ownership in banks, insurance companies, auto makers and hedge funds might be jumping from the proverbial frying pan and into the fire.

Especially since the Chinese hold all the notes to this mess.