Now that AIG has $85 billion in taxpayer funds, what are they up to?

Earlier today, Congressional investigators made public that AIG executives, after receiving a taxpayer-funded $85 billion bailout, headed to a weeklong retreat at the beautiful, and very expensive, St. Regis Resort in Monarch Beach, California.  Expenses for the retreat totalled more than $440,000, including $200,000 for rooms, $150,000 for meals, $20,000 for ‘leisure dining,’ and $23,000 in spa charges.

Henry Waxman (D-CA), chair of the House Oversight and Government Committee, also noted that one AIG executive who was central to the failure of AIG is still (post-bailout) receiving at least $1 million per month in compensation.

At least this shows that all Americans aren’t suffering economic woes.  And, shouldn’t I be happy anyway?  I can’t afford to spend thousands of dollars a day on a pampering retreat, but at least someone can – someone my government deemed needed the help.  My guess is that this revelation about AIG’s use of the taxpayer bailout won’t be the last of its kind.  Writing blank, government backed checks to bail out failed businesses is NOT a good idea and it very likely will lead to terrible misuse of taxpayer money.

I, for one, am outraged.  Outraged at the bailout, outraged at the abuse of taxpayer funds, and outraged I’m paying for a massage I can’t have!

This entry was posted on Tuesday, October 7th, 2008 at 4:03 pm and is filed under AIG, Advocacy/Activism, Uncategorized, bailout. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. Both comments and pings are currently closed.