Rick Wagoner: Triple Bonus Double Standard

The country has rarely exhibited outrage on this scale. Unprecedented protests erupted when AIG execs, the very same top dogs who made millions from the company's shell game "profits," the same brainiacs who ushered a thriving company into financial ruin, were handed million dollar bonuses out of taxpayer bailout cash. The government shrugged with disapproval, but no one lost their job or was forced to give the bonus money back (although many were shamed into it).

Then, two days ago, the administration turned its sights on the gasping-for-its-last-breath auto industry, and put in play the first double standard: No more government money unless a head gets chopped off. WHACK! Off with GM's Head! Now poor Rick Wagoner is a "sacrificial lamb" -- a victim of the double standard, where Wall Street gets a "tsk tsk" and Detroit gets government instituted reorganization. Over the past two days, hundreds of publications, bloggers, and talking heads have called the administration to task for the unlevel playing field Detroit is forced to play on. Michigan Governor Jennifer Granholm was all over the perceived unfairness: "There's one standard for Wall Street and one standard for the average Joe and that's not fair," Granholm said on CNN's "State of the Union" TV show. .

What is the real double standard? Rick Wagoner, poor thing, is slated to receive over $23 million in bonuses from GM. That's millions of dollars more than most AIG execs got. And coming from GM, a company using government bailout cash to pay its bills, the entire bonus is a distribution of hard-earned taxpayer bailout cash. Where is the outrage demanding that Wagoner refuse this excessive compensation for his utter failure of leadership at the helm of GM?

After all, Wagoner, like the AIG execs, was at the helm, responsible for the worst-ever performance of the company. Under his stewardship, the company reported losses of $82 billion, having not logged a profit since 2004. Emergency government bailout money kept it from running out of money at the end of 2008, money which is largely gone now, three months later. When Wagoner took over as CEO in June 2000, GM's stock was trading above $70. This past week, trading closed at $3.62.

Wagoner's refusal to acknowledge what the world knew before him-- too many brands; too much emphasis on selling gas guzzlers; too little concern for the environment-- underscores ineptness and arrogance, qualities that sound pretty similar to the attributes of AIG's best and brightest. Shouldn't the public be demanding he refuse this undeserved benefit, comprised entirely of our hard earned money? If GM had been allowed to go into bankruptcy, which would have been the natural outcome without our bailout money, poor Rick Wagoner would have no bonus. He deserves exactly what the AIG execs deserved --nothing. And the public should be exercising its voice of outrage, not perpetuating the double standard by defending his "sacrificial" role.