After learning over the weekend that $450 million in bonuses were paid out to executives in charge of the unit responsible for the insurance behemoth's crash, critics hit the airwaves expressing what the Wall Street Journal characterized as "growing wrath," and House Speaker Nancy Pelosi announced that Congress will "examine legal options to recover taxpayer funds" from AIG, according to the speaker's blog, The Gavel. The Speaker even called the bonuses "unconscionable."
While American workers see their wages decline and face record job losses, it is unconscionable that AIG, which is receiving more than $170 billion in government assistance, would permit such extravagant executive compensation practices without any accountability to the taxpayer.
I have asked Chairman Barney Frank of the House Financial Services Committee to examine options that are legally available to recover taxpayer funds of companies that abuse the privilege of taxpayer assistance.
I call upon the executives at AIG to right the wrong they have done to American taxpayers, who are footing the bill for the most expensive government rescue in history. They should renounce the bonuses and refuse the excessive retention pay they previously agreed to.
Let's hope this is only the beginning of close examination of the funds that went into this sinkhole.