Forums / Political & Legal / Sen. Dodd - No. 1 beneficiary of AIG

THE FOUNDATION
"To take from one, because it is thought his own industry and that of his fathers has acquired too much, in order to spare to others, who, or whose fathers, have not exercised equal industry and skill, is to violate arbitrarily the first principle of association, the guarantee to everyone the free exercise of his industry and the fruits acquired by it." --Thomas Jefferson

Sen. Dodd - No. 1 beneficiary of AIG
THE DEMO-GOGUES
From the AIG regulating stooges: "One way or another, we're going to try to figure out how to get these resources back." --Sen. Chris Dodd (D-CT), who only a month ago made sure that these particular bonuses were exempt from regulation in the stimulus bill; Dodd is also the recipient of the most campaign cash from AIG ($103,000 in 2008) ++ "If you don't return it on your own, we will do it for you." --Sen. Chuck Schumer (D-NY) on Congress' possible plan to take back AIG bonuses with a tax ++ "Maybe it's time to fire some people." --Rep. Barney Frank (D-MA) on AIG, though we could have sworn he was talking about Congress

Non Compos Mentis: "The first thing that would make me feel a little bit better towards them if they'd follow the Japanese model and come before the American people and take that deep bow and say I'm sorry, and then either do one of two things -- resign, or go commit suicide." --Sen. Charles Grassley (R-IA), who later sort of apologized

His philosophy in a nutshell: "There are certain things only a government can do." --Barack Obama

Vintage Joe: "This is not about ideology. This is about economic necessity. ... I know some of you are holding your breath with what we're doing. This is about the change we meant. We meant fundamental, foundational change. ... Folks, this is the real deal -- this ain't politics. This is life and death for a lot of people. ... Our friends on the right say we can't afford this budget. Well I say without equivocation -- I speak for Barack Obama when I say, we can't afford not to have this budget." --Vice President Joe Biden

Reason to panic: "I think that not just the Chinese government, but every investor, can have absolute confidence in the soundness of investments in the United States." --Barack Obama

Global warmism: "Climate change is not governed by a recession, it's governed by scientific facts about what's happening to earth. And you either accept the realities of the science or you don't. You don't enter a mutual suicide pact because the economy is having a hard time right now. You certainly have room to negotiate at what the rate and schedule is within that, but it doesn't mean you can sit around and do nothing." --Sen. John Kerry (D-MA) on a cap-and-trade system for greenhouse gas emissions

EDITORIAL EXEGESIS
"President Obama joined [Monday] in the clamor of outrage at AIG for paying some $165 million in contractually obligated employee bonuses. He and the rest of the political class thus neatly deflected attention from the larger outrage, which is the five-month Beltway cover-up over who benefited most from the AIG bailout. Taxpayers have already put up $173 billion, or more than a thousand times the amount of those bonuses, to fund the government's AIG 'rescue.' This federal takeover, never approved by AIG shareholders, uses the firm as a conduit to bail out other institutions. After months of government stonewalling, on Sunday night AIG officially acknowledged where most of the taxpayer funds have been going. Since September 16, AIG has sent $120 billion in cash, collateral and other payouts to banks, municipal governments and other derivative counterparties around the world. This includes at least $20 billion to European banks. The list also includes American charity cases like Goldman Sachs, which received at least $13 billion. This comes after months of claims by Goldman that all of its AIG bets were adequately hedged and that it needed no 'bailout.' Why take $13 billion then? This needless cover-up is one reason Americans are getting angrier as they wonder if Washington is lying to them about these bailouts." --The Wall Street Journal

INSIGHT
"In general, the art of government consists in taking as much money as possible from one party of the citizens to give to the other." --French writer Voltaire (1694-1778)