http://www.alternet.org/blogs/peek/108429/heckuva_bailout%3A_citi_and_aig_still_pay_hundreds_of_millions_in_sports_sponsorshipHeckuva Bailout: Citi and AIG Still Pay Hundreds of Millions in Sports SponsorshipPosted by Jane Hamsher, Firedoglake at 10:23 AM on November 24, 2008.
In his press conference today, Obama says he wants Detroit automakers to come up with a "plan" before they can receive a bridge loan that will keep three million jobs from being lost as we teeter on the edge of a global depression.
I guess this is the plan for Citi and AIG:
AIG, Citibank and a number of other federally bailed-out financial institutions have no plans to cancel hundreds of millions of dollars in sports team sponsorships, even as they take billions in taxpayer support, ABC News has found.
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Struggling Citibank just sealed a multi-billion-dollar emergency "backstop" deal with the U.S. government. The financial behemoth, suffering with billions in bad mortgage-related assets on its books, recently shed 53,000 workers and saw its stock price lose over half its value. Yet it's in a 20-year contract to pay the New York Mets $400 million to name the team's new stadium "Citi Field."
"This type of spending is indefensible and unacceptable to Citigroup's new partner and largest investor: the American taxpayer," said Rep. Elijah Cummings, D-Md., in a statement Monday.
There are a million UAW pensioners living in fear right now because pontificating, sanctimonious, disingenuous creeps like Richard Shelby are on TV preaching that they must give up the retirement funds they spent a lifetime contributing to because they make Detroit "uncompetitive" with Japanese automakers in his state. No mention is made that right-to-work states like Alabama give foreign auto makers a protective advantage by making it illegal to unionize.
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