I would like to know what the experts have to say about Ellen's question. But I am going to have to agree with you bill, I am mad at congress. Who is to blame? Dodd?

I don't see the connection between the AIG bonus uproar and the Stimulus. Those bonuses were awarded and became legally binding last year.

Any stick to beat a dog?

It's Congress' fault for not outlawing immoral behavior! How could those people and AIG management know what is acceptable in normal society? They work with money, not real stuff!

I can be disappointed that lawmakers blew a chance to emplace a useful mechanism, and still be really pissed at the arrogance and insensitivity of AIG management and employees.

You have it backwards.

....Can that be any clearer? It was Obama officials, not Dodd, who demanded that already-vested bonus payments be exempted. The provision which shielded already-promised bonus payments from the executive compensation limits ended up being inserted at the insistence of Geithner. A spokesperson for Dodd, who is now consumed by these completely unfair attacks, finally confirmed today that these provisions were inserted at the direction of Treasury officials....

Yet now, the Obama administration is feeding reporters the accusation that it was Dodd who was responsible for the exemptions that protected already-vested bonuses.....

http://www.salon.com/opinion/greenwald/2009/03/17/dodd/index.html

Sen. Ron Wyden [D-OR] was on Rachel Maddow last night and stated that he worked with Olympia Snow [R-ME] to have a provision regulating the bonuses. It was taken out of the bill in its final stages. This could have been avoided.

At the same time, why are we not talking about the union contracts that were broken or renegotiated and those executives taking a dollar/year for a salary? As the attorneys stated in the post above, contracts are broken every day. We should hold the money and let them come out of the woodwork and sue for their bonuses if they think they deserve them. frankly, gauging their performance, I question why they have jobs at all.

A whole lot of things could be put right if people just made it clear to these elected members of Congress that they will remember to vote against them next time around. It's simple. We're just not doing it.

According to Yahoo, Dodd admits that he was responsible for the controversial language.

http://news.yahoo.com/s/politico/20090318/pl_politico/30833

I am mad at congress for authorizing the bailouts in the first place.

Politics makes strange bedfellows!

The House defeated it at first in September, 228-205, remember? With the market crashing in response? It was the conservative Republicans leading the charge against its passage:

....Republican lawmakers took turns lambasting the bill on the House floor. Many stood at the podium in outrage, loudly urging their fellow representatives to shoot down the measure.

....“Madam Speaker I have this bill, it’s over 100 pages long,” said Rep. Ted Poe of Texas, raising a copy of the measure over his head and displaying a picture he had brought of a battered Uncle Sam. “That means it’s a billion dollars a page. New York City fat cats expect us to pay for it. I think not.”....

....Gresham Barrett, a Republican from South Carolina....“We cannot allow the American taxpayer to become the insurance policy for financial decisions that didn’t quite turn out as planned,” he said. “I fear that this legislation erodes accountability and the freedom that comes with it.”

.....Some Republicans said the bill would set in motion bailouts for one bank after another....

and many accused the Dems who voted with them, and against Pelosi's wishes, of bluedogdom for that reason.

Then the Senate got to work on it, with not a little input to Congressional leaders from Senator Obama via phone, who was expecting to win the presidency, and who said in his campaign speeches that passage was necessary. McCain's initial gut reaction was to be against it, but something changed his mind, like falling poll numbers as the financial crisis picked up pace.