Blunt Wants Investigation of AIG's TARP Money

Congressman Roy Blunt is urging the Financial Services Committee to schedule a hearing to examine a report that the Federal Reserve Bank of New York was unprepared to deal with bailout money AIG received last year.

Blunt said the committee must investigate before legislation regarding further AIG-style bailouts are considered.

From BLOOMBERG: The inspector general’s report “paints a devastating picture of government regulators ill-prepared to deal with the failure of complex financial institutions like AIG, and who failed to fight for what was in the best interest of the taxpayers," Blunt and Bachus said in the letter today.

"Without a hearing to fully explore the decisions that led to the bailout of AIG and its counterparties, we are concerned that efforts to extend and expand TARP, as well as legislation currently being considered by the Financial Services Committee to codify a permanent bailout authority, will only lead to many of the same mistakes that have cost taxpayers hundreds of billions of dollars," reads Blunt's letter.

Your Questions, McCaskill's Answers

Q & A
The Notebook asked for your questions for Sen. Claire McCaskill as she tours the state during the Congressional recess. Below is video of her full answers given during her Springfield stop to your inquiries on gay marriage, A.I.G. bonuses, a student minimum wage and Twitter.


GAY MARRIAGE
"According to the Iowa Supreme Court I was wrong."

Q: Ron Bradley asked about Iowa's gay marriage ruling, and if the Senator would be comfortable with a similar court decision in this state?

McCaskill said "they couldn't make a similar decision in Missouri because there's a constitutional amendment." When reminded that she said such an amendment wasn't needed in Missouri, she replied, "According to the Iowa Supreme Court I was wrong."

A.I.G. BONUS TAX
"I would vote for it."

Q: Dustin James asked about the A.I.G. bonuses and if she supported the Congressional move to take them away.

McCaskill said she did, although possibly in a different way than the House voted to do so. "If somebody's doing a really good job and they want to give them a bonus, that's fine, but they need to wait to collect it, after we've been paid back," McCaskill said.

Also notes the President Obama is criticized whether he intervenes in companies or he doesn't.

STUDENT MINIMUM WAGE
"I think that's a bad idea."

Q: Brian Rushing asked if Sen. McCaskill would support a special student minimum wage to help protect small family-owned businesses?

McCaskill said she would not. "We need to be giving college kids as much help as possible," she said.

Mentions she's not proud that MIZZOU leads the Big 12 in tuition.


THE AGE OF TWITTER
"I think, what would Jim Talent think?"

Q: Greg Holman wanted to know if McCaskill really thinks Twitter will help Democrats win elections?

McCaskill doesn't believe Twitter is a fad and explained how it serves as a great discipline, because it makes her think about Missouri.

She reads each Twitter three times before she clicks.
First, she makes sure what she thinks.
Then, she asks what her grandmother would think.
Finally, she thinks "what would Jim Talent think."

Let's Be Blunt: Taxing AIG Bonuses "Purely Political"

NOT GONNA HAPPEN

"This bill will not pass the Senate"

Congressman Roy Blunt tells The Notebook Friday that his vote to tax 90 percent of bonus money allotted to the big banks was "all about sending a message" and says he's confident the bill won't pass the U.S. Senate.

"If it was going to be real, it would have to have a lot more thought than that bill had," Blunt said in an interview Friday.

Blunt signaled that he might not have voted to tax the bonuses if he knew the legislation had a chance of passing and being signed by the President. "This is all about sending a message. You're going to get slapped back if you do things that don't make sense to people," Blunt explained, calling it a "purely political" vote.

"I'm for sending messages occasionally, and the message here is, when you take a lot of taxpayer money, you have a different level of responsibility than you had before," Blunt said. "This bill will not pass the Senate. This was all about messaging to people who've taken TARP money."

***

The vote to tax bonuses divided the House GOP caucus, with Blunt voting in favor of it along with 84 other Republicans, including Whip Eric Cantor. House Minority Leader John Boehner voted "no."

Politico on Blunt and Adam Putnam: " . . . the populist anger over bonuses paid by a bailed-out company all but required them to get in line behind the Democrats’ tax plan."

Blunt and Putnam are both candidates for statewide office.

BELOW: BLUNT ON GEITHNER

The Congressman said he doesn't have confidence in the Treasury Secretary yet, but is willing to give him more time.

"I'm willing to give him some more time and he needs more help," Blunt said of the Secretary.

Notes 20 vacancies remain in key advisory roles

"I do think he's probably working as hard as anybody in Washington right now, maybe harder, but not producing very good results because he's not fully populated the government with people that need to do these jobs," Blunt explained.

McCaskill: "I Have Confidence In Secretary Geithner"

Sen. Claire McCaskill said Thursday she remains confident in Treasury Secretary Timothy Geithner, despite the "very difficult job" he has right now.

***WATCH FULL CLIP ABOVE***

"I think he has been surprised by some of the disconnect within the financial sector," McCaskill said. "Generally speaking, I think this is a man who understands the challenges . . ."

ON WHO'S TO BLAME: "I think blame can be spread around. I think certainly the President stepped up yesterday and said it's my responsibility. I wouldn't disagree with him."

GOP Consultant John Hancock boldly TWITTERS that Geithner will be toast within a month.

WATCH THE KY3 NEWS @ 10 REPORT HERE

McCaskill: Congress Needs To Go Further on Salary Caps

"We figured out, we're going to have to go that far"

In the first installment of our interview, Sen. Claire McCaskill notes that she offered an executive compensation amendment during the economic stimulus debate that might have helped avoid the A.I.G. bonus controversy.

*WATCH FULL CLIP ABOVE*

McCaskill contends that the compensation limits included in the stimulus just covered "the top people," and not entire divisions of a financial institution.

"Now we figured out, that we're going to have to go that far," McCaskill said. "For the big guys, we limited the top people and thought, that would be enough, not realizing that they were intent upon continuing down a path of giving bonuses to people who have failed."

Said she'll vote to tax the bonuses, but cautions the retroactive move is a "really limited circumstance."