Come and hop in the “Wayback Machine” with me. We’re going to set the dial for less than a week ago, March 12, 2009 to be exact. Remember, all the events are exactly as they happened except “You are there!”
We’re in Washington D.C.. We’re witnessing President Barack Obama give his public address about the $410 billion omnibus spending bill. We hear President Obama tell us that “nearly 99 percent of this legislation,” is not earmarks.
We hop back in the “Wayback Machine” and set the date for a few days earlier, March 2, 2009. Here we’re at Robert Gibbs press briefing. At this briefing, Gibbs tells us that Obama is not responsible for anything that started before he became President. If it was in the works, he is obligated to allow the action to proceed to its logical conclusion:
Q . A quick follow on the omnibus. Last week it was pointed out that a couple of Cabinet secretaries, LaHood and Mrs. Solis, have earmarks in this omnibus from last year, leftover funding. Now it’s also been learned that Vice President Biden has — I think it’s $750,000 for the University of Delaware satellite station, and Rahm Emanuel $900,000 for the Chicago Planetarium.
Since the President talked so much about earmarks in the campaign, and as President, about keeping them out of the stimulus — I know this is leftover business from last year — but as something that he is either going to sign or veto, why not have earmarks that come from his administration essentially at least taken out to set — send a signal, number one? And number two, is he — is there any chance he’ll veto this bill and send it back and say, get these earmarks out; there’s over 9,000 of them?
MR. GIBBS: Well, I think you saw remarks this weekend by the chief of staff and the budget director about the legislation. Obviously the President is concerned, despite the progress that has been made in this town, about the size and the scope of earmarks that we’ve seen over the past few years. I think even the most cynical among us would have to at least acknowledge that the number of overall earmarks has been cut.
I think it’s important to recognize that a piece of legislation probably twice the size of the piece of legislation that you’re asking me about was passed through Congress at the President’s direction without earmarks. This is the finishing up of last year’s appropriations legislation.
And I think what’s most important and what the President would tell you is important here is that though he doesn’t control everything that happened before he became President of the United States, that dozens and dozens and dozens of appropriations bills will go through Congress and come to his desk over the course of the next four years. (emphasis mine)
We hop back into the “Wayback Machine” and return to the present.
Over the weekend it was announced that AIG would be paying out $165 million in “bonuses:
Troubled insurer American International Group (AIG: 0.7801, 0.2986, 62.01%), which is 79.9%-owned by the federal government, will pay $165 million in retention bonuses on Sunday to those at the division that has drawn most of the heat for the company’s near-collapse.
President Obama responded to this news by saying:
“It’s hard to understand how derivative traders at AIG warranted any bonuses, much less $165-million in extra pay,” Mr. Obama complained at the White House. “How do they justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”
Outrage to taxpayers?
Just last week, President Obama said that $8 billion was no big deal for taxpayers to bear. Just last week, President Obama said that 2% is below the threshold for concern for taxpayers. If I do my math correctly, $165 million is a fraction of $8 billion and it is less than one tenth of a percent of the $170 Billion dollars that AIG has been given to stay afloat.
A little more than a week ago, Robert Gibbs told the world that President Obama could not be responsible for things that began during the Bush administration. This week Obama is indignant about bonuses, the contracts of which were crafted last May, even before Obama was PEBO.
It sends a thrill up my leg to see President Obama looking out for the plight of the American taxpayer. Too bad he doesn’t carry that same indignation when he’s making payments to his political homies!
