Connecticut’s Gold Coast AIG haven
The Connecticut Working Families Party, which has support from organized labor, is planning a bus tour of A.I.G. executives’ homes today, with a stop at the company’s Wilton office.
“We’re going to be peaceful and lawful in everything we do,” said Jon Green, the director of Connecticut Working Families. “I know there’s a lot of anger and a lot of rage about what’s happened. We’re not looking to foment that unnecessarily, but what we want to do is give folks in Bridgeport and Hartford and other parts of Connecticut who are struggling and losing their homes and their jobs and their health insurance an opportunity to see what kinds of lifestyle billions of dollars in credit-default swaps can buy.”
The group will be presenting a letter to those AIG Executives during the tour requesting that the executives give their bonuses to Connecticut to help close the budget gap that is cripling the state. They’ve even enclosed a courtesy envelope addressed to Connecticut’s Department of Revenue Services. I say: Why not give it a try? Apparently the actual tax payer cost of the bonuses has grown an additional $53 million dollars virtually overnight!
Connecticut’s attorney general says documents turned over to his office by American International Group Inc. shows the company paid out $218 million in bonuses, higher than the $165 million previously disclosed. Attorney General Richard Blumenthal’s office received the documents late Friday after issuing a subpoena. Blumenthal says the documents show that 73 people received at least $1 million apiece, and five of those got bonuses of more than $4 million. The financially ailing insurance giant has been under fire for giving bonuses after receiving more than $182.5 billion in federal bailout money. AIG spokesman Mark Herr declined to comment Saturday.
The goofs over at CNBC join Rush Limbaugh in defending the bonuses, going even so far as to claim that tax payers and affected citizens are no better than angry pitchfork and torch carrying mobs.
AIG has warned it’s bonus-getting employees to travel in pairs, to refrain from sporting the company logo and to be ready to call 911 as safety precautions. I am looking forward to the Youtube video footage of the event. I’d love to get a glimpse of Jackpot Jimmy’s place!
“Jackpot Jimmy”, aka James Haas, bigtime AIG bonus baby. Photo courtesy of NYPost.
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