Welcome to the Lifestyles of the Greedy and Despicable! This week’s episode features an insurance firm, who begged for and received money from the Federal government, only to use this money to give bonuses for top executives. Who was this insurance firm? Does AIG sound familiar to you? Well, it should. After all, they received $12.9 billion dollars from the government to help get them out of financial collapse.

The Washington Examiner reports that there has been considerable outrage on Capitol Hill regarding AIG’s handling of the bailout money. These bailouts were unnecessary and our legislators realize that the taxpayers money was being used unwisely.

This is exactly what I predicted would happen, and the behavior of these executives should not be condoned. In fact, AIG should pay this money back to the government immediately. Why should these executives be receiving any raises? After all, they should be focusing on working to pull their agency out of the fiscal problems they are experiencing. Upon initially receiving the bailout money, AIG sent their executives on a ritzy retreat, while the financial industry was on the brink of collapse. AIG did not deserve or need one red cent from the government, and hopefully, our elected officials will regret their decision to vote to approve these bailouts.

Face it, the economy is in a recession, and America is in massive debt. If this money would be returned to the government, then this will help with paying down some of the debt, etc. Now, of course, we know this will not happen, but there should be an in-depth investigation on each company that has received a government bailout to ensure that this money is not being wasted on corporate raises, etc.