Trouble Comin'

The pitchfork army is gathering. Everyone from the President on down is so ticked off at American International Group giving its executives bonuses with federal bailout money, and the House of Representatives even passed a bill with Republican support this week hoping to tax said bonuses as an attempt to get the money back.

President Obama's administration, though, has not escaped unscathed. It turns out Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner helped authorize an agreement that allowed AIG to pay out bonuses, though encouraging such bonuses was not the actual intent; it was apparently done (pure speculation here) for reasons boiling down to respect for the firm's autonomy.

Whatever the reason this was allowed to happen, it happened. And people are probably not going to allow any more bailouts get through Congress, even though more federal help for struggling finance and insurance companies may be needed before Obama can tackle health care and energy issues.