Gary Peters Outraged at O'Bama, Himself, & AIG - Attacks Corporations to Deflect from own Failure

by: chetly

Tue Mar 17, 2009 at 23:26:34 PM EDT

Sometimes when a politician seeks to pass the buck, the irony of real responsibility becomes to priceless to overlook. Pasted below is a steaming pile of priceless buck passing.

Enter Gary Peters.  And every Democratic Congressman, Senator, and the President.  They are outraged.  Angry.  Downright teed off.

At themselves.

Below the complete text of Gary Peters' blast e-mail to his support base.  You know - AIG - "evil corporation" that received huge bailouts (ironically, the (true) supporters of the "evil free-market", have consistently argued against bailouts, but that doesn't matter) has done what subsidized corporaticians do - take the subsidy and pay themselves off handsomely. So the Democrats - and Gary Peters' - are mad. The only thing they can do is spin 179 degrees and attack AIG - even threaten to "tax" them if the corporaticians don't give back their $165 million dollar bonuses. Yes, we're all mad - but the money is gone.

Why?  Senator Dodd and others snuck in a clause in the bailout that guaranteed AIG executives specifically would get to "honor existing contracts for bonuses".  Nobody read the bill - which O'Bama insisted must be rushed.  The same O'Bama whose campaign promise included a promised to make all bills sit in a waiting a period - precisely so people - and presidents - could read the bills before signing them. But the lens of powers changes one's vision, and hope fades away in a cloud of fuzzy deals.

Gary Peters' didn't read the bill.  Indeed, he admitted that weeks ago.  The President himself now claims ignorance - didn't know Christopher Dodd - a Democrat - slipped one by the goalie.  Indeed, Dodd, according to this report by Fox received $108,000 from - guess who - last year.  AIG.

And there-in lies the irony - and lies - of the pile of smoking dung below put out by the Gary Peters office.  You could power alot of green energy methanol plants off this one.  In fact, for a $170 million - you could build one.

PS - National Review Online points out that Gary's "tax it away" proposal is unconstitutional ("bill of attainder") and unlikely to work anyway, and it mentions Saul Anuzis' proclivity toward Twittering.

And reades will recall OaklandPolitics.com breaking the Photoshop Alteration Story during the Peters campaign.  Apparently, Polo logos are too "rich" for Gary's image, so he touched up his photos. "Washington is broken and we have to Photoshop it now."

Dear Friend,

As an American and as a taxpayer, I was outraged to learn that AIG is paying out $165 million in bonuses after accepting $170 billion in taxpayer money in order to stay afloat. To add insult to injury, these bonuses aren't going to just anyone at AIG, they are rewarding the very people who brought AIG to its knees and helped create the current financial crisis. This is the same AIG that posted a $61.7 billion loss in the last quarter, the worst loss in US corporate history. Exactly what are they being rewarded for?

The sanctity of contracts is important. However, when the auto industry received government assistance, its workers renegotiated their contracts. AIG should be held to the same standard. Last night, I introduced a bill that will resolve this problem. It will allow AIG to fulfill their contractual obligation to pay the bonuses-- and then effectively tax the bonuses at 100% to recover these bonuses for taxpayers. Under this approach, the sanctity of contracts is honored and honest, hardworking taxpayers can recoup the money spent on unacceptable bonuses.

This morning, I went on Fox News to discuss my bill. I will be making similar television appearances today and I hope you will tune in to hear an extended conversation about this much needed solution.

2:18pm Bloomberg
2:30pm MSNBC
3:10pm CNN
6:13pm MSNBC

We must act swiftly to show that corporations that take government assistance use it to get back on their feet and not to reward those who brought us there. Taxpayers must be protected and our money must be recovered.

Sincerely,


Gary Peters

 

Paid for by Peters for Congress