Stimulus backroom deal backfires

[BuyingThyme]

Stimulus backroom deal backfires
Tuesday, March 17, 2009 | 8:41 PM

By Mark Matthews

There is growing outrage over the AIG executive bonuses and now there is a new plan to get the money back. It was a backroom deal between Congress and the White House that led to those bonuses and the whole mess is now threatening to unravel the president's agenda.

During a late-night, closed door meeting last month, negotiators for the House, Senate and White House agreed to strip an amendment to the stimulus bill that would have restricted bonuses to any company receiving federal bailout funds. Instead of that measure, another measure by Senator Chris Dodd (D) from Connecticut was inserted that limited "executive compensation," but specifically exempted bonuses.

Senate Majority Leader Harry Reid (D) of Nevada was in on those closed door negotiations when the bonus limitation was stripped from the stimulus bill.

"I'm wondering sir, if that was a mistake by Democrats to drop that and you wish you hadn't at this time?" asked a reporter.
"I think we should look at what we did put in the bill. We did put the Dodd language..." said Senator Reid.

Senator Reid never addressed whether it was a mistake, but Republican leaders were all over it.

...

http://abclocal.go.com/kgo/story?section=news/politics&id=6715304&rss=rss-kgo-article-6715304

[FrenchieCat]

1. Yippee!

Repubs have talking points finally!

Yeah! :woohoo:

:sarcasm:

[moundsview]

7. Give it a rest

There is some serious crap going down here and you may want to take off the blinders.

Wishin', and hopin', and thinkin', and prayin',
Planning and dreamin' each night of his charms.
That won't get you into his arms.

[FrenchieCat]

11. The only crap going down was what I just read in your post......

Democrats are being set up, and you just joined in for a possibly assist?

[elleng]

2. Didn't we hear today that it was NOT Dodd's fault?

Or was that because WH was involved?

DAMN DAMN DAMN!

(i've been thinking - not really thinking, maybe suspecting - that r.e. might have been involved.)

[BuyingThyme]

3. There's some strange shit goin' down.

The way this article quotes Reid is bizarre in its own right.

[elleng]

8. Hey, Thyme,

Dodd discussion here.

http://www.democraticunderground.com/discuss/duboard.php?az=view_all&address=132x8267983

Talking about strange s***!

[BuyingThyme]

9. Yes, I read that earlier.

I thought Greenwald was right. But that only lasted a few minutes.

But don't take that to mean I think he's wrong.

[elleng]

10. Gotcha!

I'm not taking ANYTHING to mean that ANYONE's wrong (OR RIGHT) at the moment!

[Norquist Nemesis]

4. Is there a timeline on all of this stuff somewhere?

Honestly, I see reports of this, that, when, why, who and how much with all sorts of conflicts. Didn't Paulson have a hand in this too?

[Uzybone]

5. At some point real facts will come out

as soon as tomorrow. Everything so far has been crap and poorly sourced. Who suggested and decided to strip the language from the bill? That question is never answered.

[elleng]

6. Dunno

'On Tuesday, Geithner wrote a letter to Speaker of the House Nancy Pelosi (D) promising that in the future, AIG bonuses will be subject to the strict executive compensation provisions in the stimulus package, but bonuses written prior to February 1, 2009 are exempt.'

[aquart]

12. "Unravel the agenda"? Oh, my word.

Damn, the fascists at Disney, as my dear dead cousin used to call them, still don't grasp the situation.

[BuyingThyme]

13. Yeah. Lots of weirdness in there.

You can immediately tell that they never had their minds on reporting the news.

[BuyingThyme]

14. kcik

[rocktivity]

15. How old are these people, six?

I would expect this from a bunch a little kids standing over a broken lamp!

"All right, who knocked this over?"
(Dead silence--no eye contact)
"So nobody did it, huh? Well, nobody is watching TV for the rest of the week!"

:crazy:
rocktivity

[WI_DEM]

16. If true, Dodd's fortunes in CT, already shaky for '10, are down right bad

Hard to believe that Lieberman survived but Dodd might go down.