It was recently reported in the mainstream media that the executives of insurance giant, AIG, requested over 165M in unpaid bonuses for executives which they claimed were due and petitioned the Secretary of the Treasury, Timothy Geithner, for additional sums from the September bailout in order to satisfy these "obligations."
Mr. Geithner, while he was portrayed in the media as outraged by this recent request from AIG who has thus far received over 170 billion under the terms of that bailout, apparently acceded to their wishes on Sunday claiming that he had no real "legal" authority to stop the distribution of these funds.
Apparently, Mr. Geithner and the Obama Administration view the demands of AIG as taking precedence over their obligations once again under the U.S. Constitution and also their oaths of office to "preserve, protect and defend the Constitution of the United States." Not to mention in such an unconstitutional act, their fiduciary duties to the American people.
A Constitution, by the way, that does not provide nor give any power to Congress or the Executive Office to "bailout" a global concern at the cost of the American people and U.S. economy.
Today, Mr. Obama faced reporters and transmitted his outrage over what has transpired, and indicated that he authorized Mr. Geithner to pursue "every legal means available" in order to recoup some of those sums.
Interesting that also Mr. Obama was one of the members of Congress who voted in favor of the bank bailout initially back in September, and also was well aware that the terms of the bailout unlawfully transferred the oversight of this massive TARP Act to the Executive Office and outside even Congress’s authority as the Constitutional branch in charge of both the purse strings, and any and all "treaties" or agreements with foreign concerns – whether private or public.
At this point, I’m unsure whether the "best actor" award should go to Mr. Geithner (a former President of the New York branch of the Federal Reserve, who was the entity that actually "loaned" the sums, billing them to the United States and it’s citizens) or Mr. Obama. The "legal" means are right there in front of them, the United States Constitution. The Federal Reserve Act which was passed in 1913 gives Congress the power to "buy back" our economy from the Fed for the price of merely 425 million, far less than has been given so far to AIG.
It is interesting that this "Constitutional lawyer," brings up the "law" now in order to use it more as an excuse for moving slowly while these monies are being progressively doled out and actually NOT acting, than he was intially in either abstaining or voting with the Constitution in September when this "bailout" was being hatched in the Halls of Congress. And the Executive Office definitely is out of it’s authority in it’s oversight – that function purely belongs to Congress by also Constitutional provision.
It seems this "bailout" of AIG is the biggest money laundering operation committed against the American people ever. Far greater than Mr. Maddoff’s puny Ponzi scheme.
So just when is it that Mr. Obama is going to fulfill his oath? Now, or maybe wait until 2012 after he receives part of that bailout for his next run for the presidency? (P.S. Mr. McCain also received a great deal from the financial sector and those claimed "bankrupt" banks and financial institutions for his race, so this is a bipartisan collusion to fraud, not simply on the part of the Democrats).