Graves: AIG Congress to Blame for Bonuses

Graves: AIG, Congress to Blame for Bonuses

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."

"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."

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