Call To Action

Everyone from President Obama on down has expressed their outrage at the $165 million in bonuses insurance giant AIG just paid.

Congressional leaders have introduced priority bills to get back the bonuses.

And, in the last 36 hours, thousands of you joined that chorus by signing our petition demanding that AIG withhold these bonuses until they've paid back every dime of their $170 billion taxpayer bailout. You would think that with the near-unanimous condemnation of their actions, and the hot media spotlight focused on them, AIG bigwigs would give back their ill-gotten gains.

Right? Not so fast.

Now, some officials are saying that AIG contracts might require that the bonuses be paid.

I'm not ready to pay up!

If you're not ready to pay up either, please sign our petition. I'm convinced that we can win, but we have to make sure that our leaders in Washington, D.C., know that we're not going to back down.

That's why we're sending copies of our petition to President Obama and Congress as well, to keep them focused on the task at hand -- stopping these bonuses.

How can it make sense to give multi-million dollar rewards to executives whose business decisions bankrupted a company and destabilized our economy? Under what moral code is it acceptable to reward these executives with tax dollars from hard working folks who are struggling in a bad economy?

These bonuses are an outrage, but they're also symbolic of the twisted incentives and priorities that continue to plague Wall Street.

We have to make sure that President Obama and Congress know that we won't back down until the AIG bonuses are returned. 

Please sign our petition and forward to your friends. With your support, we will win this one.

Andre Delattre
U.S. PIRG Executive Director
AndreD@uspirg.org

Petition Text:

We demand that AIG withhold management bonuses until taxpayer money has been paid back in full.