Congressman Shuster released the following statement today on the AIG bonus controversy:
“The AIG bonuses are outrageous and wrong. No one who helped run AIG into the ground should get a bonus, especially a taxpayer funded bonus. The American people deserve the truth and an apology from those at blame for this abject failure of leadership.
Weeding through the contradictory statements and excuses from the past few days, we now know that the blame over the bonuses lie at the feet of the Democrat controlled Congress and the Obama Administration.
We know that Democrat Senator Chris Dodd added an amendment to the stimulus that legally required AIG to pay the bonuses. We also know that Democrats blocked Republican attempts to strip Dodd’s bonus language from the stimulus. Finally, we know the stimulus plan along with the bonuses was rushed through Congress without anyone having the time to actually read the bill, including the President who signed it into law just a few days later.
The bonus controversy is a symptom of the Democrats’ disregard for good governance and fiscal responsibility. The American people are rightfully angry and fed up with the way their government is being run.
The time for gimmicks is over. Congress must re-open the stimulus and do what we should have done in the first place – read it. We must review this trillion dollar 1,100 page monstrosity line by line, keep what works and throw the rest into the trash heap where it belongs.”
