Seems like we all need demons.

• The Clinton administration demonized Newt Gingrich and HMOs
• The Bush administration demonized Saddam Hussain
• The Obama administration is demonizing Rush Limbaugh and AIG

This is stupid. It’s like the shell game at the carnival. You watch and watch intently and never figure out where the pea is. When, all the time the problem is the shell.

All the hoopla about the $165 million paid to AIG employees is not the issue. The $680 BILLION we paid them is the issue. We sent them this money with no strings attached. The budget Congress passed included the “Dodd Amendment” that said bonuses that were scheduled prior to Feb 2009 could be paid. These bonuses were scheduled prior to that date, they just were not paid.  The Treasury Secretary and the President knew prior to the Saturday March 21st AIG announcement about the bonuses. This was not a secret plan hatched by AIG

Why then did the administration send it’s people to all the Sunday morning talk shows expressing their outrage? They knew about the bonuses, but they made it look like they were surprised. Complete BS.

Now for the remedy…

Isn’t there something in the Constitution called the “Bill of Attainder”?

The Constitution of the United States, Article I, Section 9, paragraph 3 provides that: “No Bill of Attainder or ex post facto Law will be passed.”

Wikipedia says:

A bill of attainder (also known as an act or writ of attainder) is an act of legislature declaring a person or group of persons guilty of some crime and punishing them without benefit of a trial. Bills of attainder are forbidden by Article I, section 9, clause 3 of the United States Constitution.

I’m not a lawyer like most of the Senators and Congressmen and women, but doesn’t this mean that you cannot single out a single person or a group and pass a law to punish them?

I’m just saying, it doesn’t sound right. I don’t like the idea of paying people either, but it was up to Congress to write this into the rules before they gave away our money.