A continent stood between President Obama and a Congress in wild-eyed panic yesterday: The president was in California prepping for an appearance on “The Tonight Show with Jay Leno” as the House voted to confiscate 90 percent of those infamous AIG bonuses.
But what of the remaining 10 percent?
“We figured that the local and state governments would take care of [that],” chuckled Rep. Charles Rangel.
It’s no joke. They will.
Politicians seeking to placate frightened and angry voters will always take down the scapegoat du jour case in point being yesterday’s 328-93 vote to filch the AIG bonuses.
“These people are getting away with murder,” declared Rangel never mind that, just two days earlier, he had quite correctly warned against using “the [tax] code as a political weapon.”
And never mind that the Treasury Department now admits to pressuring Congress to include a clause in bailout legislation specifically permitting the AIG bonuses to go forward.
“I take full responsibility for that,” Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner told CNN yesterday.
It was an admission that should restore some common sense to the bonus debate if not actually let AIG off the hook but it’s more likely to have Congress demanding Geithner’s head on a stick, too.
That would be bad news: The last thing the nation and the global economy need is for Geithner to be bitten to death by congressional ducks.
All the more reason for Obama to step forward and provide leadership.
Alas, he was off to LaLa Land for his Leno moment after having very publicly filled out his bracket for the annual NCAA basketball tournament.
Such is his right, of course. Election to the presidency does not come with a sentence of confinement to the Oval Office.
But, as Duke University coach Mike Krzyzewski put it: “As much as I respect what he’s doing, really, the economy is something he should focus on, probably more than the brackets.”
Obama isn’t the first chief executive to take an interest in sports. But he is the president who talks about the importance of language: “What we say matters.”
It sure does.
And over the weekend, top White House advisers were saying that the AIG bonuses couldn’t be stopped or recouped without violating the law. (And they probably were right; yesterday’s ex post facto tax is likely unconstitutional.)
Obama himself cautioned against stripping or taxing the bonuses away, giving AIG execs “the capacity to sue the government and get not only their bonuses but potentially . . . even more.”
Then the White House saw all those stories about Main Street outrage. Quick as a wink, Obama was demanding to know how AIG could “justify this outrage to the taxpayers who are keeping the company afloat.”
And Congress acted on cue, cravenly.
Sen. Chuck Schumer summed it up thusly: “We will take this money back and return it to its rightful owners.”
Yesterday’s vote was the first step in that process; the Senate is expected to complete it later this month.
Meanwhile, as Obama chatted with Leno yesterday, the nation remained no closer to a resolution of its economic crisis than it was the day he took office and a panicky Congress was poised to move against the people and institutions he has chosen to lead the revival.
Your move, Mr. President.
Please make it.