The question of how an amendment crept into the bailout bill exempting the very AIG bonuses that are now being criticized by the administration is currently unanswered. The administration calls it the “Dodd Amendment”, but Dodd says he has nothing to do with it. Fox reports:
While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. The provision, now called “the Dodd Amendment” by the Obama Administration, provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” — which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax.
“Senator Dodd’s original executive compensation amendment adopted by the Senate did not include an exemption for existing contracts that provided for these types of bonuses,” wrote Dodd Spokesperson Kate Szostak in a response to FOX Business. “Because of negotiations with the Treasury Department and the bill Conferees, several modifications were made,” she said, without suggesting who made the change.
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Not the Dodd Amendment but the anonymous amendment. The National Review says that in any case, Barack Obama should have read the bill exempting the AIG bonuses before he signed it.
But why is Obama so outraged and surprised? Today we learn that he signed the very bill that quite clearly made those bonuses legal — the $787 billion stimulus package he had traveled around the nation promoting. The bill includes restrictions on executive compensation, but creates an exception for bonuses contractually obligated before February 11 of this year. The provision, and the exception, were inserted into the bill by the chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Chris Dodd (D, Conn.), who has received more than $100,000 from AIG employees in the last 20 years, had written and inserted the relevant provision, with the relevant loophole. How can he, the president, or anyone else who voted for the stimulus, suddenly act surprised? Don’t tell us they didn’t read the bill.
But Joe Wiesenthal at the Business Insider is unimpressed with the complaints against Dodd. Is that all we can lay at the doorstep of the Senator, he says? He argues we that we should already expect a low level of competence from politicians and not a much higher standard of personal integrity. So unless somebody actually saw Dodd write the “Dodd Amendment” there’s no foul. In this game you’ve got to be caught red handed.
We don’t think it’s that big of a deal. Like, sure Sen. Dodd is bought and paid for by particular interests — in Connecticut that’s largely finance — but that’s the case with pretty much all of the rascals. There’s no evidence that Dodd specifically inserted this provision to help AIG, though that’d be a big story if it emerges. We’ll keep an eye on this, but don’t expect it to amount to a whole lot.
Maybe Wiesenthal has a point about low standards. Political behavior in a crisis sometimes resembles those scenes where a number of suspects, arranged in a loose circle, are being questioned about something that has gone wrong. Unless they’ve previously colluded to tell a single story, fingers can flash out in all directions in an almost comical manner. “He did it, but not me”. That’s why it’s always good to be prepared. The Dodd Amendment may not have been written by the Senator. But whoever in the administration coined the phrase which stuck it on him has been around the block.
What’s Montague? it is nor hand, nor foot,
Nor arm, nor face, nor any other part
Belonging to a man. O, be some other name!
What’s in a name? That which we call a rose
By any other name would smell as sweet.
If AIG won’t lie down, there’s always Dodd.
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“Dodd Amendment”. We now have a fresh term for “paying off your political debts”. Cool.
We have never even found out who hired Livingston in the Clinton Admin and who told him to go grab all those FBI records. He apparently hired himself and went and got the FBI stuff on his own initiative.
We have never found out how the previously subpoenaed Rose law firm records got into the private area of the White House with Hillary’s fingerprints on them.
It is interesting how such straightforward questions go unanswered and are treated as unknowable mysteries, in the same manner as, say, the supposed UFO crash at Roswell. Except that there have been dozens of books and TV shows about Roswell. Maybe it is because there is no real mystery for the straightforward political questions, just Unplausible Deniability – and that seems to be enough.
To think it odd
That Christopher Dodd
Would act nice for his cronies
Is more than queer
It’s insincere
To question his cajones
The man won’t care
That others share
A view of him unflattering
His clout he lends
To help his friends
Escape financial battering
And in return
Chris Dodd will earn
The thanks of the entire land
Along with cash
And the weekend bash
In his cottage in Ould Ireland
What we ever read about is only the tip of the iceberg.
“In this game you’ve got to be caught red handed.”
Well said. Spoken like someone of great insight and considerable experience.
When I was at the Pentagon there had to be a regular intelligence gathering operation underway in order to interpret what Congress really meant when they added earmarks to the budget. You had to have some foreknowledge of what the bastards on the Hill, … uh, I mean, distinguished members of the world’s greatest deliberative body, wanted you to do. There were people charged with doing that, who had years of experience, and I always had to point out what they had missed. Pork was important but in terms of observability it made a Stealth bomber flying a 100 ft AGL on a moonless night look like the Goodyear Blimp over the Super Bowl.
For example, “Provide a plan to upgrade the only inland missile test range in the U.S.” really meant “Build the University of Alaska a new office building with a solarium and one teeny tiny room used for a control center and if you have any money left over extend that garage they have by 6 ft in order to fit that new rocket SDI needs to launch for one experiment.”
This encryption scheme carried over to personal communications. When asked “Do you want us to just dump this money on the people you meant it for and run away or actually manage the project you have described?” The answer from the Congressional Staff was “We expect you to manage the project,” which meant “Dump the money on them and gethell out of their way but if they screw it all up we will blame you anyway.”
Zero Accountability, now we have legislation that writes itself and is not read or understood by the signatories. How inspirational!!
Not too damn happy about this admin. sending $900M to Fatah and Hamas but unwilling to approve $500M for the Veterans administration. I wrote both Senators Webb and Allen this date to express my displeasure over this:
http://www.foxnews.com/politics/first100days/2009/03/17/vets-group-blasts-obama-plan-private-insurance-pay-service-related-health-care/
Whiskey Tango Foxtrot?
Doubt it will do much good, if they dont read the law they vote on why would they take the time to read an email from a voter?
Here is my note:
Honorable Senator,
I am writing to express my outrage at the current planned action of the Obama administration to require private insurance carriers and private citizens who are veterans for treatment of troops injured in the service of their country. This is an abdication of the mandate of the VA to provide for those who have honorably served our nation and will place an undue burden on tens of thousands at a time of economic difficulty. As a voice on Senate Committee on Veteran’s Affairs, I strongly encourage you to publicly state your opposition to this immoral and unreasonable action.
This and I would like to draw you attention to these statements made by Mr. Obama a year ago:
“When soldiers return from fighting, they deserve nothing but the best in medical care, he said. More needs to be done, he said, to understand the effects of post traumatic stress disorder and traumatic brain injury on soldiers returning from war.”
“We’ll have to keep our sacred trust with our veterans and fully fund the (Veterans Administration). We’ll have to look after our wounded warriors, whether they’re suffering from wounds seen or unseen,” he said.
Ref: http://www.herald-dispatch.com/homepage/x989802180
Thank you for your time,
h/t and assist from Real Revo posters
The “Dodd” amendment- a passive aggressive stilleto jab so characteristic of The One. I don’t know if Obama really wants to get into it with the distinguished gentleman from Connecticut though. In the greater scheme of things he’s still the very junior senator from Illinois. How little real juice he has in DC becomes more apparent every day. Obama will come to regret this move on Dodd- maybe not today, and maybe not tomorrow, but soon, and for the rest of his life.
Who is Wiesenthal? No evidence the provision was specifically for AIG? Well I just know there are many, many companies who set their bonuses before 2/11/09, right?
No–they did the deal on 2/10, as late as possible, enabling the provision to be written very narrowly, applying only to AIG. It almost makes my eyes shoot fire to think how dumb they must think we are!
In the tone of a angry forgotten man,”IS IT TIME? Are we passed the point of working within the system? Claire Wolfe must be apoplectic.
Jim, who is so angry he is calm.
The Constitutional provision against ex post facto law is what set the date.
That is, the legislation was first introduced on this date, even before Bush left office.
You know, Senator Doofus from Iowa. The R must stand for retarded. He may be right this time in a blind pig sort of way.
Maybe we should go with the resign and suicide provision for elected officials. I mean he raised the bar and we should hold the whole rotten barrel of apples to the same standard.
Jim still angry
Which makes the dust-up very contrived indeed.
If we allow legally written and enforced contracts to be illegally annulled at the whim of the government. Then our basis as a country of rule by law is null and void. We have entered into Thugocracy. We are no better than Chavez or Mugabe. Truly sad.
Jim still mad
The mask has slipped. Servants of the people? Not a chance. Our imperial rulers can disreguard the Constitution, the Law and anything else they want. Shumer said it best (to paraphrase) “We don’t need no stinkin laws”.
#9–could you explain a little more? I didn’t follow that.
Gordon,
I think that Dodd, or his evil twin Skippy, inserted a provision protecting the bonuses from further review, and made sure to do it before Obama took the oath of office. If it had been done after the bonuses were paid it would have been ex post facto and unconstitutional. The fact is that Obama signed the bill so even if his flacks try to make an issue that some negotiations happened on Bush’s watch it means nothing, nada, zip. Carolyn Maloney is full of baloney when she proposes a special ex post facto law to recover the money, Anyone who advocates such a law should be deemed mentally and morally incompetent to vote or hold office. That particularly holds for Senator Schumer. BTW Schumer funded his initial run against Al D’Amato using his muscle from when he was on the House Banking Committee, that’s right he roosted with Barney Frank. Schumer went into Wall Street board rooms and the line I heard was that he did not suffer from subtlety. Something on the order of “Cough it up” was mentioned. We should be careful not to get overheated here but it is true that this frays the line between America and random dictatorships. If Congress can pass ex post facto laws to take away specific people’s money, at the same time that the President is announcing that he is changing the rules to make military veterans pay for their service connected injuries, then it becomes conceivable that somewhere some Colonel among the thousands will wonder if we really are any different. More likely and equally disastrous is that if Congress did pass such a law the entire banking and financial system would collapse on the spot. Every Director of every corporation would retire to the country, possibly a foreign country, on the spot. Cows could start grazing in NY’s Bowling Green again.
No legal scholar am I, but I’m pretty sure that the Constitution’s provisions against Bills of Attainder (which is exactly what a “tax AIG bonuses at 100%” law would be) would result in this being declared unconstitutional right off the bat. Besides, how are you going to collect tax money from foreign nationals who’ve already received their checks? This administration is rapidly approaching departure time for the SS Epic Fail.
Gordon,
Congress doesn’t think we’re dumb, they think we’re unconscious. By the way we act, or actually non act, it looks like we are.
Regrettably I have not found it on Youtube but in the movie Captain Horatio Hornblower http://www.imdb.com/title/tt0043379/ there is a scene where El Supremo rants and raves as the Royal Navy methodically demolishes his ship around him. The sharks are starting to circle around Obama and they may not be as polite as Gregory Peck.
We have consistently been on a downward trajectory in political behavior since the 1960′s. Was it not so great before that…of course, in fact Harding ( Warren G. not Tonya) didn’t do much for the office but the descents acceleration is nearing the edges of human G force capability to withstand.
Our nadir is currently running the nation amd his minions haven’t a clue. Yes,yes it’s only been a couple of months but if you haven’t noticed the other major world players are ramping up to begin pushing us hard.
Adlai Ewing Stevenson II once likened the Soviets to theives in a hotel simply walking the halls , trying all the door knobs to see what was easy…well that methodology is about to be resurrected by more than just the Soviets precisely at a time we can’t afford it to happen.(yes I’m aware of the international dimensions of interlocking economies but don’t allow that to blind you to naked aggression) Isn’t that the way the Democrats had it planned?
Dodd’s behavior? Most inside the beltway see nothing wrong with it …folks we’re in deep
kimchee.
So, who is the doddering fool?
Habu,
Interlocking economies means nothing.
Who were the world’s two largest trading partners in 1914?
No cheating now, you get only one guess.
OK, England and Germany.
Did you peek?
If Madoffs victims can write off loss on Income tax due to fraud,could’nt we all write of our loss in 401k accounts under the same cause?I feel as much a victim of Government and CDS traders fraud as Bernie’s prey must.
Just pictured Warren Harding on skates in tights.
My eyes, my eyes!
Habu @ 19:
“Our nadir is currently running the nation amd his minions haven’t a clue. Yes,yes it’s only been a couple of months but if you haven’t noticed the other major world players are ramping up to begin pushing us hard.”
Yup, I noticed. I’ll say it again, rookies make rookie mistakes. The problem is that we are the ones who will have to bear the brunt of it.
Pitchforks and torches anyone?
Here’s another tidbit about everyone’s favorite man-boy Little Timmy Geithner.
http://www.americanthinker.com/blog/2009/03/geithners_unsung_role_in_the_b.html
Coulda saved Bear Stearns. Didn’t.
American Thinker also has the Dodd line of the day: “Dodd is such a bum when you buy him he doesn’t stay bought.”
And in an off-topic bank shot that I bring up because I know Belmonters would love it… if you haven’t seen the Werner Herzog documentary “Little Dieter Needs to Fly,” well you must. It is the story of a truly grand American, Dieter Dengler, who left Germany after WWII as a boy of 18, ended up a Navy pilot, got shot down over Laos, was captured, tortured (especially for refusing to sign a document condemning America’s actions) and finally escaped. It’s as riveting a documentary as you will ever see about a man so brave and strong that I can only bow my head to him in honor. Yet he is humble throughout.
NetFlix has it for play online until the end of this month, or you can order the DVD.
This film should be shown to every high school student in the country. But then again, it might make them patriotic, and we can’t have that.
Dieter Dengler, Mans man with cajones of titanium. He truly did not fear like normal humans do. Nice post.
England and Germany. Two children of an incestuous relationship over many many generations.
Jim still mad
This is a truly amazing moment.
Watch for the defining moment of the Obama presidency. Particularly dangerous times for everyone.
If the yelling and screaming gets put into legislation, the US and world won’t emerge from this mess. Ever. Last time it took a world war, this time no one would survive one.
It looks like Obama is trying to shift the blame, but he put his political credibility on the line for this one. What did he say? If it doesn’t work he won’t be president next time? He has a couple of choices. He can continue to attack, to tear down, to blame someone else. He spirals into insignificance as he sees everyone abandoning him, and his legislative agenda stalls. The fights within the Democratic party break out into open warfare.
Or he could take this as a club and start making his administration work, start focusing on solutions rather than political ephemera.
I’m betting he tries to ride it as savior of the little guy, and ends up with a whole lot of them unemployed as anyone with anything to invests hides it from those idiots in Washington.
Derek
Dereck,
IF the Jews nuke the Persians will it start the conflagration or will the BIG BOYS hold back, perhaps with the loss of Taiwan to China and Latvia etc back to the Soviets.
Personally I’d trade ‘em all to avoid a large nuclear exchange none of us would survive.
Derek,
Your second option (raising the club) presumes Obama wants and can be convinced to act in other than intentionally malicious ways. I have very serious doubts, bordering on absolute conviction that this is wishful thinking.
So if it’s planned malevolence, we can include all the Democrat cronies, no? And?
He did it
In the letter, Mr. Geithner confirmed that the government would subtract $165 million — the amount of the bonuses — from the latest $30 billion loan to A.I.G. that would bring the total loans to $200 billion, from the original $85 billion.
Mr. Geithner reiterated the Treasury position that lawyers inside and out of government had agreed that “it would be legally difficult to prevent these contractually mandated payments.”
That position was being questioned at the Capitol. Congressional Republicans, eager to implicate Democrats, initially blamed Senator Christopher J. Dodd, the Connecticut Democrat who heads the banking committee, for adding to the economic recovery package an amendment that cracked down on bonuses at companies getting bailout money, but that exempted bonuses protected by contracts, like A.I.G.’s.
Mr. Dodd, in turn, responded Tuesday with a statement saying that the exemption actually had been inserted at the insistence of Treasury during Congress’s final legislative negotiations.
—-
“I didn’t know”
…Rev. Wright is a racist
…Bill Ayers was a terrorist
…Rod Blagojevich is a crook
…how bad things are
…about the AIG bonuses
After the whole thing blew up in their faces there was real and manifest scramble to find a patsy. Now we see that it was Treasury’s fault, according to Dodd. And it was AIG’s fault according to Treasury. And it wasn’t their fault, according to AIG, because they pre-cleared it in writing: the Dodd Amendment, don’t you see, so we are back to Dodd. Yet we are no further ahead.
Because the whole bailout is going to be riddled with these logical inconsistencies. After all, if AIG has to meet its contractual obligations to foreign banks in billions why should it not meet its contractual obligations to its own employees in millions, especially if they cleared it with BHO administration first, with the President himself signing off on the Bill? If your out to prop up bad business practice, why stop at some point? Or do you need to appear occasionally smart so people don’t notice a policy that may be consistently stupid?
I think the administration senses a rising public anger about the way public funds are being used, so they’re going feed AIG to the lions first. It’s not principle. It’s panic.
I don’t think it ‘s a panic, I think it’s a purposeful diversion.
The Obama administration knows the vast majority of people will never get the finer points of the situation like that AIG has contractual obligations to pay the bonuses, or that the Obama Administration had to know, or should have known of the bonuses for quite a while. The fact the Geitner didn’t know is hardly surprising given that he has virtually no staff and I believe probably has some more important things to do like fix bank lending or something.
Our Dear Leader saw an opportunity to inflame the anti Wall Street- anti business hysteria of the moment and proceeded accordingly. The media has on cue spun this as an another example of the evil, corrupt behavior of Wall Street and American Business. This is the desired effect.
I thought Bear Sterns was a mattress company?
Well anyway a mattress is where you better put your money, if you want any chance of seeing it again.
sounds like the admin is boxing themselves into a corner as far as AIG is concerned.
ie its likely AIG will come back again for more money. now the government is positioning itself to refuse AIG.
That means there will be no money to pass through to creditors–which is what the money would have been used for.
Are AIG’s creditors still so shaky that they would go down if AIG defaults.
So if AIG goes down do they still take a whole lot of other companies with them or has enough debt been paid down–such that AIG’s creditors/lenders wouldn’t go down if AIG defaulted?
beats me.
Most people would say the following can’t happen:
Totalitarian creep 1
Totalitarian creep 2
Unsk @33: I don’t think it ’s a panic, I think it’s a purposeful diversion…. Our Dear Leader saw an opportunity to inflame the anti Wall Street- anti business hysteria of the moment and proceeded accordingly. The media has on cue spun this as an another example of the evil, corrupt behavior of Wall Street and American Business.
Agree. This is simply the age old practice of scapegoating, beloved of totalitarians everywhere. How long before we see Obama start making veiled anti-Jewish comments (perhaps “New York financial interests”). How long before they become overt? Maybe it’s Jews, maybe it’s Republicans, maybe it’s white males. Whichever, the sense I get is that the only way the Dems can peddle their snakeoil in the long term is to find a scapegoat to blame for the inevitable disastrous results that will follow from unchecked spending, cap-and-trade, etc.
We already have a confirmed Jihad-lover running the Civil Rights Division. The brownshirts are falling into place. They have only just begun to flex their muscles.
And now Barney is offering to “fix” Freddie…which he repeatedly denied was in trouble when it could have been fixed. Our government is broken.
Sam Spade said, “They’re none of them any good unless the thereat of death is behind them.”
Just so. Unless and until some of these sonsabitches go to jail, nothing will change.
I re 2X4′s first link, Wilson had a cadre of several hundred thousand sworn secret agents to enforce “Americanism” during WWI. Arrested a bunch because they had the temerity ti criticize the war and the President. You can look it up.
“The brownshirts are falling into place. They have only just begun to flex their muscles.”
Dunno, Pete. Looks to me like the Brownshirts are going to turn into Brownpants pretty soon.
@ 42. maineman
Depends… As an anonymous blob molded after Sturmabteilung, they may have some clout. But once they are outed, one by one, they would become just a bunch of wannabes. What may be worrisome is if they try to recruit criminal and other nefarious elements along the Shutzstaffel lines.
2X4@43
First they’ll be “get out the vote, registration posses, seemingly less threatening, armed with the very best communications gear our tax dollars can purchase. Henchmen comes later, with some practice. Outing may be superflous, as they’ll have badges or some other symbol of authority, and the law behind them.
@ 44. geoffgo
Badges or symbols of authority make it even easier to out them out.
This AIG mess was laid in place in yr 2000, when ‘credit default swaps’ were specifically exempted from the regulations passed into law in Clinton’s last year. Clinton’s engineer was deputy sec treasury Gary Gensler, who is Obama’s appointment to chair the Commodity Futures Trading Commission –which BTW has just been tasked with broader oversight powers. The money is not bailing Aig, but foriegn counterp0arties –in cxases i’ve searched, these are the people that’ve been paying the Clinton Foundation thos enourmous ‘speaking fees’ fro Bubba to come to town, make his speech, then conduct the secret seminar with in how to bust out USA and ‘level that playing field’.
Meanwhile, John Deutsch, a Clinton CIA director who got caught pouring ultra top secrets out into the world through his home AOL account, and who was pardoned before he could be charged (by Clinton of course), is Obama’s new spy satellite advisor/czar.
Deep doo doo. We can only dimly guess the timeline, and be assured it will beat us to the punch –the offense advantage, picks time & place.
I really should proofread –above looks like wino-speak. But do search those items –don’t believe me –take a look.
And Unsk, your remark re Geithner’s problem is that he is understaffed –c’mon –you’re kidding, right?
The way these soiled doves from the past keep alighting on the future, you’d think there’s only about a dozen citizens in the entire United States.
Instead of 320,000,000 –a goodly number of whom are both capable AND clean.
Buddy, but the Petit-bourgeois are the unseen people. They do not exist in the minds of the elite thugocracy that currently rule.
Jim
Reading seems to be a stumbling block for the current administration.
Anyone who claims this Dodd stuff is no big deal just admitted to having a beltway zip code on his mind set. This level of mismanagement is going to magnify every little irk and tic by every jerk in government. And it will not be the little ones who pay. At least not just yet.
Which brings to mind, last year candidate Obama promised to ‘use line-item veto’ to clean up the waste in Washington DC in his Hope-And-Change campaign.