[Congressional Record (Bound Edition), Volume 155 (2009), Part 2]
[House]
[Page 2458]
[From the U.S. Government Publishing Office, www.gpo.gov]




                         BAILOUT BONUS BANDITS

  (Mr. POE of Texas asked and was given permission to address the House 
for 1 minute.)
  Mr. POE of Texas. Madam Speaker, more fallout continues from the 
bailout. Congress gave the people's money to AIG last year in the 
amount of $152 billion. AIG has decided to spend $400 million on 
bonuses for 400 executives. That sounds like about $1 million per 
executive to me.
  But they aren't alone. The Wall Street fat cats demanded and received 
$350 billion in bailout money, and gave $18 billion to their big-shot 
executives. Do you know that those are the same executives that helped 
get us in this current economic mess? It looks like they are being 
rewarded for bad conduct.
  But the real problem is the bonus money doesn't belong to AIG or the 
``Wall Street Banking Boys Gang.'' It's one thing for a free market, 
private company to spend their money any way they choose. That's 
capitalism. But the free enterprise system was altered when those 
companies started demanding and taking taxpayers' money. Most normal 
citizens who are scraping to make ends meet, like the Joe Sixpacks in 
America, don't like the way the bailout bandits are spending and 
wasting their taxpayer money.
  Madam Speaker, when Big Business gets in bed with Big Government, in 
the morning, the government mistress will tell Big Business how to 
spend the money.
  And that's just the way it is.

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