Congressman Harry Teague Demands an End to AIG Taxpayer Funded Bonuses
Letter
Congressman Harry Teague led a group of freshman Representatives in a letter to AIG C.E.O., Edward Liddy, urging the return of taxpayer funded bonuses and asking for a stop to any future bonuses. The letter comes after news that after accepting $170 billion in taxpayer funds AIG is currently distributing $220 million in executive bonuses.
"I have always been against the Wall Street bailout because I knew we weren't doing enough to protect the taxpayers that were paying for the bailout. These corporations that are benefitting from and in some cases were saved by the bailout need to learn to exercise some restraint and common sense," said Congressman Harry Teague. "The values I learned working in New Mexico's oil fields were that if you work hard and do a good job, you can be successful and make a good living, but these executives want to profit from their massive failure. The only right thing for AIG to do is to immediately end bonus payments and seek to recover those disbursements that have already been made."
In January, after voting twice to block the bailout funds, Congressman Harry Teague led a group of lawmakers in writing a letter to President Obama calling for strict oversight and accountability measures to be enacted before the release of additional bailout funds.
Full Text of the Letter:
March 16, 2009
Edward Liddy
C.E.O.
American International Group, Inc.
70 Pine Street
New York, New York 10270
Dear Mr. Liddy:
As new Members of Congress representing hard-working American taxpayers, we were shocked and outraged upon learning that AIG, a recipient of over $170 billion in bailout funds from the federal government, is in the process of doling out $220 million in executive bonuses. Of all the financial institutions that have received taxpayer bailout subsidies, none has received more bailout dollars than AIG.
To make matters worse, we understand that the bonuses will be paid to executives at your financial products division, who wrote trillions of dollars worth of insurance to protect investors from defaults on bonds backed by subprime mortgages. Seven executives in this division, which helped steer AIG toward collapse, are reported to be receiving more than $3 million each.
We believe that AIG's decision to use taxpayer funds to pay for executive bonuses goes beyond corporate irresponsibility. It is unconscionable. There would likely not even be a company called AIG to make these extravagant and irresponsible payments if it were not for subsidies provided to you by taxpayers.
The constituents we represent vehemently object to the use of their taxpayer dollars to pay bonuses to executives at bailed out institutions, and we agree. It is unacceptable for private companies receiving taxpayer assistance to hand out million-dollar bonuses while hard-working Americans bear the burden of this economic crisis. We believe that the executives that helped precipitate this massive global financial crisis should not be profiting from a taxpayer funded bailout. Rather, they should be last in line.
We strongly urge you to immediately end bonus payments and seek to recover disbursements that have already been made. This money does not belong to you. It belongs to the taxpayers of the United States.
Sincerely,
Harry Teague
Member of Congress
Betsy Markey
Member of Congress
Gary Peters
Member of Congress
Ben Ray Luján
Member of Congress
Jared Polis
Member of Congress
Eric Massa
Member of Congress
Mark Schauer
Member of Congress
Glenn Nye
Member of Congress
Martin Heinrich
Member of Congress
Paul Tonko
Member of Congress
Mary Jo Kilroy
Member of Congress
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