Who’s the real villain in the AIG bonus debacle?

Of course they took the money!

In all the congressional huffing and puffing about the $165 million bonuses given to AIG execs, Congress seems to ignore a basic of human nature: Nobody returns a $6 million bonus check from their boss, no matter how bad the business is doing. Ain’t gonna happen.

That said, I think it’s pretty safe to say that most Americans are outraged that AIG would pay bonuses to employees who engineered the current financial catastrophe. None are more outraged than Congress, however. Legislators, seeking a dramatic demonstration of their anger, are demanding that employees give back the money or have it taxed by 100 percent.

Seems to me that they are punishing the wrong villains. We know the employees don’t deserve retention awards or “bonuses” by any other name, but they were promised and paid.

If you are looking for villains now, how about Congress, who shoveled billions from taxpayer coffers to the banks. This same outraged Congress didn't ask basic questions about whether banks would be forced to actually loan money or if employees could scamper out the door with some of the bailout loot. How about the board of directors and senior management, who approved and disbursed the bonuses while they were still begging America for a handout. How about a Secretary of the Treasury, who had no clue that the bonuses were planned while selling the “rescue” plan. How about a complicit media, who didn’t report on the substance of the stimulus bills but rather focused on who was winning or losing the fight.

None of the true villains want to take responsibility, so they point at the employees who accepted the bonuses rather than the knuckleheads who paid them. Now they want the employees to voluntarily give them back. Who does that? Certainly none of the real culprits.