Jeff Burton was asked during the press conference what he thinks of the AIG bonuses. In case you've been ignoring national news all week — after receiving at least $170 billion in government bailout money, AIG paid out $165 billion in bonuses to its executives. Obviously that was met with public outrage.
Burton's a guy who stays up on current events more than most drivers. He also has an opinion. So when he was asked about AIG, he at first thought it was a joke. Then he gave a well thought mini-rant on the subject.
"I think that Congress screwed it up, and it sure would be nice to have somebody stand up and say 'you know what? I screwed up and supported sending tax dollars to a company to bail them out and didn't put more stipulations in there.' It sure would be nice if somebody would just stand up and say that. And the people at AIG should have enough sense not to take the bonus. But the people who gave the money to them ought to have had enough sense not to do that.
"Congress is ripping all the lenders for screwing the country up, guess what they are? They're a lender that screwed that up. So how are they any different? So it sure would be nice to see one of them stand up and say `We should have done something different rather than just point the finger at each other.'
"There," Burton concluded. "I feel better now."
