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This article was on TBI. thanks, John Carney.

Tim Geithner Takes Responsibility For AIG Bonuses

Tim Geithner says he takes "full responsibility" for knowing the stimulus legislation had a loophole that would allow bailed-out insurance giant American International Group pay massive bonuses to employees at the controversial money-losing financial products group.

CNN got the confession from Geithner:

In an interview with CNN's Ali Velshi, Geithner said the Treasury Department did talk to Sen. Chris Dodd about a clause he put forth that would have strictly limited executive bonuses.

The Treasury Department was concerned that legislation that would restrict contractual bonuses would not hold up to legal challenges, Geithner said.

"We expressed concern about this specific version. We wanted to make sure it was strong enough to survive legal challenge," Geithner said.

Geithner's interview will air on CNN in part at 5 p.m. ET on Thursday and in full at 8 p.m.

Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, also acknowledged Wednesday his role in controversy, after denying having anything to do with crafting language that permitted the bonuses.

Geithner said he learned the full scale of the bonus problems on March 10.

"It's my responsibility, I was in a position where I didn't know about those sooner, I take full responsibility for that," he said.

Geithner probably hopes that by taking responsibility in this way, he can defuse criticism. As CNN's senior political correspondent said about Barack Obama, when these guys say "blame me" it is political code for "move on." It is, in other words, an attempt to change subjects and end discussion.

Mar. 19, 2009, 4:51 PM

This is only the beginning of the kind of problems we will see when our elected officials think it's perfectly fine to have an economy that's half socialist half capitalist.(I'm sure they have there reasons..... p$o$w$e$r) It's the worst of all systems, AIG is stealing tax payers dollars by the means of Government coercion. We need to start holding all our representatives accountable. Voters should vote more on substance rather than symbolism.