(Washington, D.C) U.S. Congressman Sam Graves expressed outrage this week that American International Group (AIG) gave bonuses to top executives after taxpayers paid $173 billion dollars to keep the company out of bankruptcy. The bonuses totaled roughly $165 million dollars.

 

“It is the American taxpayers who kept this company afloat,” said Graves. “AIG should voluntarily give this bonus money back as a way of keeping faith with the millions of Americans who bailed them out.”

 

The AIG bonuses were made possible by an amendment to the stimulus package added during the conference committee by Sen. Chris Dodd (Conn.). The amendment stated that provisions in the bailout and stimulus bills that limited compensation payments would not apply to “any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009.” Thus, Sen. Dodd’s amendment legally required AIG to pay the bonuses because they were agreed to months prior. After a public backlash, the House proposed a retroactive 90% tax targeted at individuals who received a bonus.

 

“This is a bailout for the people who voted for the bailout,” said Graves. “This is nothing more than a gimmick to divert attention from the fact that Washington is spending trillions of dollars with no idea where it is going. The people who voted for the bailout now want to increase taxes to fix their mistake.”

 

To date, Congress has spent over two trillion dollars in stimulus and bailout bills. Graves has voted against every bailout to come before the House. Graves said that the unprecedented amount of spending has lead to waste, fraud and abuse of taxpayer money.

 

“No one is watching out for taxpayer money,” said Graves. “Congress rushed to spend two trillion dollars and only now are we finding out how it has been spent.”

 

Graves is a co-sponsor of H.R. 1577 which requires the Secretary of the Treasury to pursue every legal means to recoup the bonuses.

 

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