Reluctant Politician

Currently General Motors is offering payment protection plans in case a car buyer loses their job. Now if GM goes bankrupt then how does that help? For that matter how does 0% financing help the car companies stay afloat? (If only the world made sense.)

I understand that with the recession and all the uncertainty regarding the Big Three that automobiles are leaving dealers’ lots at a snail’s pace. However, my points were if GM goes bankrupt then how exactly could a company with no money pay my car loan? And if they keep selling cars at 0% interest through their own finance firm (GMAC), then they really aren’t making anything on the car except the monthly loan payment spread across as many as seven years. It doesn’t take much schooling to figure that out, yet they still seem to have not.

If President Obama and N.Y. Attorney General Andrew Cuomo truly cared about the A.I.G. employee bonuses they would’ve tried to block them BEFORE they were paid. Leaders need to be proactive, not reactive!

I am in no way defending the bonuses and think they are blatantly absurd. However, the government was most likely already aware of them long ago. Obama only came out today trying to block them because the media learned of the bonuses and reported on them widely this past weekend.

The Feds knew there was little legally they could do to stop them from being awarded since they were explicitly stated in contracts with those employees. While it may be insane they are legally entitled to the bonuses. Now if they should accept this largesse or not is another matter altogether.

Politicians invariably have three massive, and apparently insurmountable, failings:

1) They tend to overreact to bad news and events and rush bad legislation (i.e. giving the banks billions without any oversight or, for another example, the passing the Patriot Act).

2) They react to events in the news AFTER the fact instead of confronting issues and taking steps to alleviate them before they make headlines.

3) They promise a new ethical and open manner of government, yet once in power ‘blindside’ their supporters and everyone else with ‘business as usual.’

To be completely fair and upfront here … I have never been a supporter of former Pres. George W. Bush and generally vote Democratic. However, Obama was a reluctant vote in that I do not trust him. His very first action as a potential president was to say he would accept the public financing for his campaign. He then turned around and took a boatload of private money instead. Starting your term with a lie does not sit well with me and I do not like the trend I am seeing with him so far.

OMG!!!! ^&%&*^$%*^&$%#

AIG is about to pay $100 million in bonuses to executives in the division that wrote trillions of dollars’ worth of credit-default swaps – the very same thing responsible for our financial mess!

“We cannot attract and retain the best and the brightest talent to lead and staff A.I.G. businesses if employees believe their compensation is subject to continued and arbitrary adjustment by the U.S. Treasury.”

BEST AND BRIGHTEST!?! AT WHAT? BEING SNAKE OIL PEDDLERS!! ——

Not even three hours since I saw the story and the amount has risen to $165 million in bonuses which have already been paid out to these financial ‘wizards.’

You know what, give me nearly $200 billion dollars and responsibility for trillions more and I’d have a tough time spending it all much less making it disappear into thin air like A.I.G. has.