Don’t let Barack Obama, Tim Geitner, or any other politician fool you.

They f***** up.

Yeah, that’s right, I said it. They f***** up.

How on Earth do you give A.I.G. $170 billion in bailout funds and not have adequate restrictions on their compensation of employees?

As you probably know, A.I.G. is set to go forth with giving out $165 million in bonuses to its employees in which it is legally obligated to do so. Of course, I don’t understand how one is obligated to give out a bonus when the company is losing money (such as the approximate $62 billion A.I.G. lost last quarter), but I digress.

The real problem is why didn’t our government put conditions on the bailout money before giving it to A.I.G. so that the fledgling company couldn’t pull this move on them at the 11th hour?

That’s the question I want you to ask yourself as President Barack Obama throws out phrases, like the Treasury Department is going to “pursue every single legal avenue” to recover the bonuses. Because the very aggressiveness he is using to stop these bonuses is the same type of aggressiveness he should have used to prevent them from ever coming to fruition.

This is a HUGE blunder. This is a complete mismanagement of money. This isn’t much worst than appropriating funds for Iraq-centric projects and winding up with billions of dollars missing. It is completely irresponsible to give money to a company, become a partner in that company, and not have conditions as to what your money is to be used for. That’s like giving a kid money to pay for his own cavity fillings at the dentist without spending the time to tell him that he can no longer use your money to buy excessive sweets and ice cream. It’s just stupid!

I’m all for spending money to get the economy going, and I was the first one on board for the latest stimulus plan. But let’s be smart with the money. The first bunch of TARP money was essentially wasted. If we don’t stop the bleeding now, it will be hard for President Obama to ask for any money, of any kind, for any purpose, anytime in the near future.

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