Sen. Dodd Should Resign

The Coffee Shop
1

I swear I don’t make this stuff up.

Sen Dodd is proposing an amendment to tax AIG execs in the financial products division receiving bonuses.

But guess what, he was the one that allowed the bonuses.

While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment 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.

Why would have have put that loophole in the stimulus bill in the first place?

***Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org. ***

These keystone cops are in charge of crafting our country’s financial recovery.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/story/markets/industries/finance/dodd-cracks-aig---time/

2

I don’t understand. Bonuses are already taxed as ordinary income. What would change? Surely he’s not proposing additional tax, on this one group of people, is he?!

3

Agreed. They should all resign. So should the representatives. We can then have a special election to replace the whole stinking bunch.

4

Sen. Schumer says if you don’t voluntarily give the bonuses back, they will tax all of it anyway.

http://www.reuters.com/article/usDollarRpt/idUSWAT01116520090317

5

Agree. From 2003-2008 Dodd received campaign money from these sectors:

Securities & Investment $4,242,546  Lawyers/Law Firms $1,942,553  Insurance $1,440,422  Real Estate $1,282,741  Commercial Banks $905,044

Oh yeah, since 2006 he has been head of the Senate Banking committee.
But of course, money doesn’t influence his decisions at all.

6

I swear I don’t make this stuff up.

Sen Dodd is proposing an amendment to tax AIG execs in the financial products division receiving bonuses.

But guess what, he was the one that allowed the bonuses.

While the Senate was constructing the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment 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.

Why would have have put that loophole in the stimulus bill in the first place?

***Separately, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org. ***

These keystone cops are in charge of crafting our country’s financial recovery.

http://www.foxbusiness.com/...d-cracks-aig---time/
LT you beat me to it, I posted the same thing, with much harsher language though !! I will merge with you post.

7

Here is my version:

I have railed on Chris Dodd previously for his sweetheart deals with Countrywide and the fact that this guy is a complete two-faced asswipe, so it doesn’t come as any surprise when I read the following:

You really can’t make this shit up.

"Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn.) on Monday night floated the idea of taxing American International Group (AIG: 0.9768, 0.1967, 25.21%) bonus recipients so the government could recoup the $450 million the company is paying to employees in its financial products unit. Within hours, the idea spread to both houses of Congress, with lawmakers proposing an AIG bonus tax.

While the Senate constructed the $787 billion stimulus last month, Dodd unexpectedly added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. That amendment provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009,” **which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are seeking to tax. **The amendment is in the final version and is law.

Also, Sen. Dodd was AIG’s largest single recipient of campaign donations during the 2008 election cycle with $103,100, according to opensecrets.org.

And then there is this:

Senate committee hits back
Elsewhere on Capitol Hill,** **AIG got predictably raked over the coals at a Senate Banking Committee hearing Tuesday on regulating the insurance industry.
**“One way or another, we’re going to try to figure out how to get these resources back,” said Christopher Dodd, a Democrat from Connecticut and the panel’s chairman. **

This is complete and utter bullshit. And all the mindless sheeple on the street and in the media painting AIG’s decision as a scandal and an outrage are absolute fucktards each and every one of them.

Dodd’s own comments recently make me want to puke.

"Why wasn’t the Fed putting conditionality four different times they provided resources to AIG?" asked Dodd, who included in the $787 billion stimulus package an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009.”

8

Agree. From 2003-2008 Dodd received campaign money from these sectors:

Securities & Investment $4,242,546 Lawyers/Law Firms $1,942,553 Insurance $1,440,422 Real Estate $1,282,741 Commercial Banks $905,044

Oh yeah, since 2006 he has been head of the Senate Banking committee.
But of course, money doesn’t influence his decisions at all.

What state does Dodd represent? What are some of the biggest industries in that state? (hint: there’s this company called The Hartford :slight_smile:

9

You are right, you did say it better.

10

**What state does Dodd represent? What are some of the biggest industries in that state? (hint: there’s this company called The Hartford :slight_smile: **

Hartford is on the list of banks and insurance companies that gave Dodd money, but surprisingly not at the very top (CitiGroup is #1 on his list with AIG at #4). Good stuff. You can pull up this information for any member of Congress (Barney Frank, head of the House Financial Services committee is another fun one to check out).

http://www.opensecrets.org/politicians/contrib.php?cycle=2008&cid=N00000581

11

Agree. From 2003-2008 Dodd received campaign money from these sectors:

Securities & Investment $4,242,546 Lawyers/Law Firms $1,942,553 Insurance $1,440,422 Real Estate $1,282,741 Commercial Banks $905,044

Oh yeah, since 2006 he has been head of the Senate Banking committee.
But of course, money doesn’t influence his decisions at all.

Its pretty commonplace for elected representatives to be funded by the industries located in the states that they hail from, and we all know that Connecticut has a huge population of financial services companies and executives located there. Nothing to see here move along.

One of the biggest outliers in this regard is the smooth talking Senator Richard Shelby, former Chair of Banking…he is from Alabama a state not known for its banking titans…yet Citigroup, MBNA, JP Morgan, Fannie Mae and others have been bankrolling him for years…things that make you go hmmmmmmmm.

12

It’s for dramatic effect, helps to get LR folks a little worked up. LOL!

This is such a predictable development. The government codifies into law that bonuses are exempt. Now these same lawmakers, the media, and the uneducated idiot on the street are calling for AIG execs to committ suicide for handing out bonuses.

American politics as usual.

Obama is outraged was not aware, we must have hearings!!!

WE MUST GET THIS MONEY BACK!!

Holy crap we are a nation of idiots.

13

We own 80% of AIG, we are well within our rights asking for a list of the bonus recipients and determining if they are deserving of them. If the AIG execs want to sue the US Government over non payment, I say bring em on. They’ll be as villified as Bernie Madoff in a New York minute and run out of the country on a rail.

14

We own 80% of AIG, we are well within our rights asking for a list of the bonus recipients and determining if they are deserving of them. If the AIG execs want to sue the US Government over non payment, I say bring em on. They’ll be as villified as Bernie Madoff in a New York minute and run out of the country on a rail.

Which will leave you, Obama, and our favorite tax cheat Tim Geithner to run AIG. *That’ll *give us a solid return on our “investment”!

Maybe now people are starting to understand why all of this bailout bullshit is such a bad idea.

Nah, sadly, probably not.

15

We own 80% of AIG, we are well within our rights asking for a list of the bonus recipients and determining if they are deserving of them. If the AIG execs want to sue the US Government over non payment, I say bring em on. They’ll be as villified as Bernie Madoff in a New York minute and run out of the country on a rail.

Agreed we could ask for a list. But to what avail, these lawmakers new about these bonuses previously, they knew the amounts, etc. Why is this such a scandal now? Dodd exempted these bonuses, yet, he is befuddled as to how this could happen?

This is nothing more than a smokescreen and a prime example of government overseeing something and screwing it up. Bush, Bernanke, Paulson, Geightner, Obama, Dodd, Frank, and anyone else that agreed to this bailout bullshit should be held accountable for wasting our tax dollars ad infinitum.

16

You keep calling the bailout bullshit. Did tou see what happened to the market and the economy when Bush allowed Lehman Brothers go to the wall? Imagine that x 1000 if AIG, Bank of America, Morgan Stanley, and Goldman Sachs all went bust the same week.

here’s what would have happened, every state in the union, every pension fund, every city, township, and municipality would immediately have gone bankrupt. that means no schools, no fire, no police, no garbage pick up, no services anywhere for anyone. Overnight we become a 3rd world country.

Now, I expect the anti bailout mob to start yelling that I’m overreacting, but the facts say otherwise. AIG was holding hundreds of billions in state and local government money. The other investment banks were holding hundreds of billions in pension funds and other government investments and had they gone under we all would have gone under.

So, have a little reality check, and look at the actual facts the next time you complain about the bailout. Your lot got us into this mess and it took an emergency bailout to stop the country from sliding into anarchy. Deal with it.

17

Holy crap we are a nation of idiots.
We did vote for Dubya twice.

18

dude you are clueless. Next you will suggest that if GM falls apart then the world will immediately stop driving cars and we’ll go back to horse and carriage.

19

I know the Constitution hasn’t been in vogue for a while. But how does this square with the no ex post facto clause in section 9 of that little used document?

‘very law that changes the punishment, and inflicts a greater punishment, than the law annexed to the crime, when committed.’ Calder v. Bull, 3 U.S. (1 Dall.) 386, 390 (1798) (opinion of Chase, J.).

20

It would if we were talking about crimes and punishments, but we’re not. We’re talking income and taxation.