Right Pundits

On March 3rd, Joseph Crowley, a Democrat Congressman from New York, queried Secretary of the Treasury Timothy Geithner about the $162 million in bonuses scheduled to be paid to AIG employees. Timothy Geithner, a week or more later, said his staff first alerted him of the bonuses on March 10th. Geithner lied and C-SPAN caught it on video. See photos and the C-SPAN video below.

The New York Times quotes Treasury spokesman Isaac Baker as follows:

Although Congressman Crowley raised the issue of the bonuses two weeks ago, Secretary Geithner was not aware of the timing or full extent of the contractual retention payments or the other bonus programs until his staff brought them to his attention on March 10.

Listening to the video clearly shows this statement as a lie also. Baker said that Geithner “takes full responsibility for not being aware of these programs before last week.” He also took full responsibility for not paying his income taxes until he was caught doing so, but then did not offer to pay other back taxes that had passed the statute of limitations for IRS audit. Geithner taking responsibility for anything does nothing for this Country. The man is an inept liar and a tax evader.

The NYT points out:

Mr. Geithner is not the only one who appears not to have understood the populist fury the bonuses would set off.

In other words, if the public isn’t upset, a politician needn’t strive to do the right thing. Timothy Geithner and Congress rolled the dice and lost. The question is, what did they really lose? Political capital? Maybe, but it’s doubtful. Nothing seems to stick to these “representatives of the people” and “public servants.”

In November, when the bailout of A.I.G. was restructured, Treasury and Fed officials negotiated the terms under which A.I.G. could make the retention payments. And in December, Democratic lawmakers sought a hearing about the payments.

Treasury officials have suggested that the New York Fed and the Federal Reserve Board in Washington failed to alert the Treasury staff until March 5. And Fed officials said that they not only alerted the Treasury staff weeks earlier, but discussed the issue with them via e-mail.

This article also claims that two Democratic lawmakers “had vociferously and repeatedly complained about the bonuses….” The two “lawmakers” are unnamed.

According to President Obama, he told Geithner to pursue every legal avenue to retrieve the bonuses. In early February, according to the NYT, “…Geithner opposed a provision in the economic stimulus bill that would have slapped a steep tax on the kind of bonuses that AIG was about to pay.”

Despite the Treasury’s objection to taxing bonuses, and Geithner’s refusal to create legislation to do so, the House voted yesterday, unconstitutionally in my opinion, to create such legislation and now the AIG bonuses will be almost entirely taxed.

While controversy rages about whether or not the bonuses are important in light of the fact that Geithner and Congress lied to the country about the bonuses - we can quibble over both, or we can condemn Congress for both. For those saying that the bonuses were contractual, that’s well-and-good, but it seems those contracts would have been broken without the intervention of Congress - or maybe the bonus approval via the House legislation was intended to keep AIG out-of-trouble once the contracts were honored. In fact, that is exactly what Geithner told CNN - finally - on Thursday, March 19th.

We have liars and cheats running this country in great abundance.

In the video below, courtesy of Hot Air, you’ll hear Timothy Geithner made aware of the AIG bonuses on March 3rd.