Public relations is a billion dollar business. Agencies and agents are paid to make you look good... even when you do not.
The Intramuralist enjoys looking good, yet it does not believe in glossing over “when one does not.” We do not advocate blind loyalty to any party, especially when that passion extinguishes our ability to discern ethics and integrity. No political party has exclusively coined that responsible behavior. No political party possesses the complete lack of it either.
The Troubled Assets Relief Program (TARP) is a US government program designed to purchase assets and equity from financial institutions in order to strengthen the financial sector. It was the largest component of the 2008 measures addressing the subprime mortgage crisis. Through this program, with some bipartisan TARP support originally, our congressmen allocated up to $700 billion for the US Treasury to purchase “troubled assets.” American International Group, Inc. (AIG) has been the recipient of over $170 billion of that allocation.
Wednesday afternoon (in my search to find fruitful entertainment), I had the pleasure of witnessing the dialogue between AIG CEO, Edward M. Liddy, and a House panel, enraged by AIG’s immediate usage of these public funds. AIG spent what now accounts to $218 million of OUR MONEY to dole out bonuses to executives. During Wednesday’s dialogue, Liddy admitted the money would not have been paid out had they not received our tax dollars. He said the retention bonuses were needed to persuade the recipients to stay long enough to untangle their own work. "They've been so vilified that they just want to go somewhere else.” Never mind that said persuasion came from our hard-earned efforts - not theirs.
What’s worse? There actually was an amendment in the original TARP bill that would have prevented the executives from receiving their bonuses. However, it was taken out of the bill by Connecticut Senator Chris Dodd.
On Tuesday of last week Dodd said he did not add the exemption. On Wednesday, uh, he said he did. He attempted then to say the administration made him do it. (Ahem, cough, cough... is that where the “throwing under the bus” concept comes in?)
Perhaps Dodd should hire a PR firm... someone to make him look good even when he does not.
Just a commentary from someone whose tax dollars paid the bonus for another... still searching for fruitful entertainment...
AR
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2 comments:
Perhaps the PR firm President Bush used and continues to use. Dodd is in the wrong here, no doubt about it. However, at least he did admit his culpability in the bonus debacle. Bush has yet to admit he did anything wrong during his tenure.
Oooh... good one...
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