Disappeared News: So who pulled the restriction on excessive bonus payments out of the stimulus bill? Sen. Inouye knows

Sunday, March 22, 2009

So who pulled the restriction on excessive bonus payments out of the stimulus bill? Sen. Inouye knows

by Larry Geller

The Obama administration and the Treasury seem to have made the request, but who voted to pull the language in conference? The question has got too many people tied up. I suppose we do need to know, there’s been little to no accountability in this bailout process. So who knows the answer to this one?

Ask Sen. Dan Inouye. He was there. In fact, he could have been one of the “bad guys” who did it, though unless he or someone else fesses up, we’ll never know.

What goes on behind the closed doors of a conference committee meeting pretty much stays behind those doors. The press and an angry public would like to place the blame for the removal of restrictive language from the bill, but they don’t know who did it.

Here’s the list of conferees. From the Senate: Harry Reid D, Max Baucus D, Daniel Inouye D, Charles Grassley R, and Thad Cochran R and from the House: Dave Obey Wisconsin D, Charles Rangel NY D, Henry Waxman Calif D, Jerry Lewis Calif R, Dave Camp Michigan R

What would they say if questioned? What would Sen. Inouye say? “Not me?”

I hope this is, as my mother would say, “just a stage.” We need to get our government to pay attention to the foreclosures, the unemployment, the lack of medical care, and all the other problems AIG and the other Wall Street firms have caused ordinary people.

The AIG bonuses were less than even 1% of the bailout money they got. It’s unfair, but let’s fix it and get past this. Same for Hawaii and the Hawaiian Telecom bonuses. Our economy is tanking while the blame game goes on.