It’s good that the Obama administration and Congress are trying to recoup some of the $165 million in bonuses paid out this weekend by American International Group. As Rep. Barney Frank, D-Mass., complained: “These bonuses are going to people who screwed this thing up enormously, who made terrible decisions.” But there may be little that can be done, as AIG appears to have been legally obligated to pay the bonuses. Congress also needs to be careful not to overreact to populist outrage, as it did on business jets.
No one likes bailing out companies such as AIG, which made “all kinds of unconscionable bets,” as Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke said Sunday on “60 Minutes.” But as Bernanke also noted, “We have no choice but to stabilize, or else risk enormous impact, not just in the financial system but on the whole U.S. economy.”
Democrats “better worry about whether Barack Obama is setting up their party for defeat in the 2010 midterm elections,” 
The claim by GOP legislative leaders last month that they couldn’t legally approve a fund transfer to help the state meet its payroll was “a smoke screen,” said State Treasurer Dennis McKinney. “The statute is pretty plain” allowing the transfer, he told The Eagle editorial board. McKinney argued that lawmakers shouldn’t have mixed a debate about the budget with the state’s cash-flow problem. Doing so caused some credit-rating agencies to question whether Kansas could be trusted to pay its bills, he said. And as for a House GOP Follow us
