This just makes my blood boil. Reuters reports that executives from AIG spent "$200,000 on hotel rooms and $23,000 on spa services at an event, just days after it got the emergency loan from the government to avoid bankruptcy in the middle of the worst credit crisis since the Great Depression."Congress needs to step in NOW and demand that AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy return every penny we've given them.
American International Group Inc could get nearly $38 billion in fresh cash under a program announced by the Federal Reserve on Wednesday, as the insurer tried to fend off criticism of a lavish event held days after getting an initial $85 billion government loan. [...]I don't care if the event was planned years ago, there is absolutely no excuse for wasting taxpayer money this way.
As lawmakers grilled former top executives at a hearing, Rep. Elijah Cummings, a Maryland Democrat, said: "They were getting facials, manicures and massages, while the American people were footing the bill."
On Wednesday, AIG said the "business event," hosted by one of its subsidiaries, was for independent life insurance agents. It said the event was planned "months before" it received the loan last month, and no AIG executives from headquarters attended.
It's tough enough that taxpayers are being asked to reward failure, but to then have such callous greed shoved in our faces is beyond the pale.
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