Who's the fool? We bailed them out and AIG is still throwing lavish gatherings on the taxpayer's dime

Despite receiving a $152 billion federal bailout package just this week, AIG recently asked for even more money! As if that wasn't bad enough, the company had the nerve to host another lavish event to the tune of $343,000 around the same time they requested additional funds:

The $343,000 conference included a number of senior AIG executives, according to KNXV-TV in Phoenix. Organizers of the three-day event made sure there were no AIG signs on the premises of the Pointe Hilton Squaw Peak Resort, in an apparent attempt to disguise the company's involvement, the station said. Source: Baltimore Sun

Although AIG executives claim they didn't pay for the entire event, my question is rather simple. If they though that what they were doing was appropriate, then why did they try to hide it?

Representative, Elijah Cummings echoed my sentiments in his recent criticism of AIG:

In a letter yesterday to Edward M. Liddy, AIG's top executive, Cummings said that since taxpayers have kept the company alive, they have a right to judge AIG on its willingness to make "effective and efficient use of their money." Citing news accounts, the congressman said that "many senior AIG executives ... were observed to be working out at a spa, eating high-priced dinners, and holding cocktail parties. That a firm already reliant on taxpayers' funding would organize such an event is outrageous."

"You have decided to continue to hold corporate parties as if nothing has fundamentally changed with your business."

One step AIG can take toward meeting public expectations that government funds would be used wisely, the Baltimore Democrat wrote, is "by accepting your resignation from the positions of Chairman and Chief Executive Officer." Source: Baltimore Sun

Of course this is not the first time that AIG was caught wasting big bucks, while having their hand out for a bailout! At this point not only should AIG's CEO resign, they should give back the money we just gave them. Screw AIG, because they cannot be trusted with taxpayer money. They have proven this beyond the shadow of the doubt. Let the industry absorb the company.

I was not for the first bailout, and at this point we need to STOP bailing out companies. Not the auto industry, not the banking industry, NOBODY should get a bailout. At the end of the day these companies are blowing the money and not using it for what it was intended for, and leaving the taxpayers to foot the bill.

The way I see it, the economy is going downhill fast anyway, so why should we put more money in the pockets of wasteful corporate executives just to delay the inevitable?