We need better oversight

Congressman Walt Minnick has co-sponsored a bill requiring the Secretary of the Treasury to aggressively pursue legal measures to force AIG employees into returning bonuses paid with taxpayer dollars.

“Like all Idahoans, I am incensed at the actions of this company and the egregious bonuses paid to their executives,” Minnick said. “But I am also incensed that our federal tax dollars were spent with so little oversight. It is my hope that this Congress and the administration will learn from this incident and see that we cannot continue to allow private companies to run amok with taxpayer dollars.”

Minnick also voted for a resolution directing the Secretary of the Treasury to use every possible legal measure to recoup government dollars spent on bonuses. Minnick, a member of the influential House Financial Services Committee, yesterday in a hearing with the current chief executive officer of AIG called for better oversight of all companies receiving federal assistance.

“I opposed the TARP bill and I opposed the bailout for AIG. I’m a businessman, and when I bought businesses I took due diligence seriously,” Minnick said at the hearing. “We taxpayers shouldn’t buy companies or socialize businesses. Having made the mistake with AIG we should not now throw good money after bad. Instead, we should now withdraw taxpayers’ support and let AIG go bankrupt, let a federal bankruptcy judge void these ill-advised bonus contracts, sort out the losses, and bring in new, qualified management to properly manage AIG free of one more nickel of taxpayer support.”

Minnick today voted against H.R. 1586, a bill that would tax employee pay at a rate of 90 percent if their employer received more than five billion dollars under the Troubled Asset Relief Program (TARP).

“Tinkering with the tax code is not the solution,” Minnick said. “Instead we need the Treasury Department to use its full weight and authority in administering the rules already in place to better regulate the companies receiving our money.