Economy & Budget

This has got to be the best quote-then-walk-back in a while. From the Washington Post on the furor surrounding news that AIG is doling out $165 million in bonuses to executives:

The rhetoric grew so heated yesterday that Sen. Charles E. Grassley (R-Iowa) suggested in a radio interview that AIG executives ought to "follow the Japanese model . . . resign, or go commit suicide." An aide later explained he does not actually want executives to kill themselves.

If only he had tweeted it.

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President Obama on Monday vowed to pursue every option available to block AIG from distributing hefty bonuses to its employees after receiving $180 billion in taxpayer bailout funds.

Speaking to small business owner in the White House, Obama took a moment to chastise AIG for reports that it plans to distribute $165 million in bonuses to its employees.

"Under these circumstances, it

South Carolina Gov. Mark Sanford (R) on Monday released a scathing response to the Democratic National Committee television ad it is currently airing in South Carolina attacking Sanford for refusing economic stimulus funds.

In a statement, Sanford said the ad is an example of the DNC launching a "political attack" instead of engaging in a debate on the issues. He also called on Obama to tell the DNC to stop running the ad.

"In his inaugural, President Obama proclaimed 'an end to the petty grievances and false promises, the recriminations and worn-out dogmas, that for far too long have strangled our politics," Sanford said. "It's in that spirit that I'd respectfully ask him to end this ad, as it shatters the idea of change he so well articulated this fall - and to ask his Democratic National Committee to put an end to this mudslinging and get back to an honest debate about the future of our country."

This will, of course, continue to fuel speculation of a possible 2012 presidential run for Sanford.

Check out the full statement after the jump. Read more...

While the left and the right condemned reports that AIG will pay $165 million in bonuses after receiving $170 billion in taxpayer bailout funds, it is worthy noting that the Wall Street Journal is now reporting that the number is much higher: $450 million in bonuses.

American International Group Inc. will pay $450 million in bonuses to employees in its financial products unit. That division was at the heart of AIG's collapse last fall, which compelled the U.S. government to provide $173.3 billion in aid to keep it running.

Chief Executive Edward Liddy told Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner in a letter dated Saturday that the next payments to employees of the financial products unit -- whose woes caused massive losses at the giant insurer -- are due on Sunday, and added "quite frankly, AIG's hands are tied."

Those payments are in addition to $121.5 million in incentive bonuses for 2008 that AIG will start making this month to about 6,400 of its roughly 116,000 employees. AIG, which was rescued in September as it faced potential bankruptcy, is also making over $600 million in retention payments to over 4,000 employees.

Together, the three programs could result in roughly $1.2 billion in retention and bonus payments to AIG employees.

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Americans United for Change are launching (yet another) television commercial blasting Republicans for not offering an alternative budget to President Obama's $3.55 trillion outline.

The ad, titled "Crickets," will air on Sunday through Tuesday on national cable and on broadcast in the D.C. market.

"So what kind of budget have the Republicans proposed to get us out of the mess they created?

The Washington Post has a must read history of Citigroup this morning. The gist: The bank has always pushed the envelope with investments that, at times, has led to big gains and, at others, led to massive losses.

Here's the key graf:

The company was just another New York bank until the last decade of the 19th century, when a new chief executive, James Stillman, began to win the business of an emerging class of giant corporations. Those firms were concentrating the control of American industry -- and eventually global industry -- on the island of Manhattan. Citigroup would prosper as their partner. A pattern was set. The city's business community and the bank would push further than their rivals, and prosper more, and every so often they would stumble badly. "It became a great bank because they were innovators," said Richard Sylla, an economics professor at New York University who specializes in the history of financial institutions. "They were early to become a great corporate bank, they were early to get overseas, they were early to get into the investment banking business, they were early to get into consumer lending."

Citi, it is worth noting, saw its stock prices shoot up nearly 40 percent on Tuesday after CEO Vikram Pandit said the company has been profitable for the first two months of 2009. This comes as the government continues to consider more bailout funds for the company, on top of the $45 billion in has already sunk into the bank.

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Rep. Ron Paul (R-Texas) strongly defended earmarks in a floor speech on Tuesday, refuting critics who claim that the pet projects are another example of Congress not being transparent.

"Earmarks are transparent," Paul said, arguing that the American public knows where earmark money is being allocated.

Paul, a fierce critic of government spending, pointed out that many lawmakers have complained about how the first half of the $700 billion Wall Street bailout was spent.

"We need more earmarks," Paul said. "We should have earmarked everything [in the financial rescue bill]."

- Bob Cusack

The Republican party is the party of ideas and congressional Democrats and President Obama are unwilling to work with it, House Minority Whip Eric Cantor (R-Va.) said Friday.

Appearing on MSNBC, Cantor said he has

This doesn't really compare to Sen. Claire McCaskill's (D-Mo.) random tweets or Sen. John McCain's (R-Ariz.) daily top ten pork projects, but this tweet from first term Congresswoman Chellie Pingree (D-Maine) is a clever way to get at the importance of the budget:

Riding in Congressional elevator, discussing best rubber soled shoes..it's walking in the tunnels that hurts..not passing budget hurts more

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With news this morning that the unemployment rate has jumped to 8.1 percent, pols didn't waste time trying to spin the numbers.

House Minority Leader John Boehner (R-Ohio) put out a statement just 20 minutes after the job numbers were released. Unsurprisingly, he blames Democrats and takes a dig at the omnibus spending bill currently being debated in Congress.

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