Can we have a new story yet?

Okay. AIG did a colossally stupid thing with these bonuses. They must have known what the backlash would be. Even a hint of excess right now is pretty much guaranteed to piss a lot of people off. They told the government what was coming and weren't cut off at the knees, which amounts to permission in the business world. Lots and lots of balls have been dropped over the past few months. This is just one more.

Over the past year, AIG has gotten more than $170 billion in federal aid. The bonuses total up to $165 million. The bonuses account for 0.097% of the total federal aid. PERCENT! The federal aid is more than a THOUSAND times greater than the bonuses. This is a literal drop in the bucket.

There are a lot of interesting quotes from senators and congressman. Some ultimatums, some threats, some promises, some hypocrisy. Status quo. This new tax is wrong--more wrong than the bonuses.

The government's job it to withdraw taxes for specific purposes (programs, services, The Beast, etc.). This is a tax of vengeance and drumming up public opinion. I am embarrassed on their behalf.

We have far larger problems right now. The smallest effective denomination to get us out of this mess is hundreds of billions of dollars leading up to trillions of dollars. How much money have we burned on witch hunts, hearings? How will these efforts help us even in the short term? The best we've done is refocus the public on smaller problems--scarcely a good thing in my estimation.

Right now, more than ever, we need to try and see the big picture. This money almost could not matter less in that big picture. President Obama--the supposed pragmatist--needs to move beyond this incident and lead us in the right direction, not get caught up with the pundits.

AIG beat the system. We deal with it this time, learn from our mistakes, and do our damnedest to prevent this nonsense from happening in the future.

I'm normally all about the principle of the matter, but this needs to just go away.