Opinion

MANUFACTURED OUTRAGE

So now it appears that President Obama knew all about those AIG bonuses – in time to do something about them.

And how did he know?

Because Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told him about them – last Thursday, before AIG honchos disbursed $165 million in “retention” bonuses to many of the same folks who basically bankrupted the company last year.

So why, we wonder, was the president in such high dudgeon Monday regarding the payouts?

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Obama blasted the firm’s “recklessness and greed,” adding “this isn’t just a matter of dollars and cents. It’s about our fundamental values.”

Took him long enough to catch on.

For the bonuses were public knowledge long before last week.

The Treasury Department knew of them last fall. So did the Federal Reserve.

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And the administration had been dickering with Congress for weeks in an effort to restrict them, without success.

For his part, Geithner supposedly learned about the pending payouts only last week – from the Fed.

But how is that possible?

Last fall, he was head of the same New York Federal Reserve Bank that last week supposedly told him of the bonuses.

And for all of Obama’s bombast, and his underlings’ unease, the fact remains that Treasury not only never sought to block them – but, in fact, approved them.

An unnamed AIG official told The New York Times that the company never would’ve paid the bonuses without Treasury and Fed approval.

Yesterday, thanks to a timely subpoena from Attorney General Andrew Cuomo, it was discovered just how outrageous the AIG bonuses really are.

Fully 73 execs got $1 million or more each – of whom 22 were paid at least $2 million, while seven got $4 million. One lucky duck pocketed a cool $6.4 million.

Moreover, though the bonuses were designated as “retention” payments – intended to keep the execs working at AIG – nearly a dozen of the recipients had already left the company.

Adding even more insult to injury, they were paid to the very same officials whose risky schemes brought AIG to its knees in the first place.

So why didn’t anyone do anything?

Rep. Elijah Cummings (D-Md.) of the House Government Oversight Committee certainly wants to know. He’d been hectoring AIG Chairman Edward Liddy about the matter since December – when the company shelled out $55 million in bonuses.

“I assumed they were well aware of it and would take appropriate action,” he said, referring to Treasury.

Right on the first count.

Wrong on the second.

Monday, Obama asked: “How [does AIG] justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat?”

Simple – Obama’s own Treasury Department gave them the go-ahead.

Yes, Treasury will now seek to extract $165 million from AIG future bailout booty, making the taxpayers whole.

But the bonuses stand, Geithner’s already shaky credibility has received another blow – and the president’s feigned anger is fooling no one.

Another bad week for the Obama administration – and it’s only Wednesday.