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You are here: Home / Good Thing We Sent Them $200 Billion

Good Thing We Sent Them $200 Billion

by John Cole|  April 16, 20096:58 pm| 47 Comments

This post is in: Assholes

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Way to be, AIG:

An Oklahoma man who lost an eye and a leg in Iraq says the giant insurance company AIG refused to provide him a new plastic leg and fought to keep from paying for a wheelchair or glasses for the eye in which he has 30 percent vision.

“They bought the cheapest thing that they could get away with,” said 51-year old John Woodson, a truck driver for the KBR contracting firm who lost his leg when his truck hit a roadside bomb in Iraq.

“Everything’s been a struggle, a constant fight,” said Woodson, injured in Oct. 2004. “It’s been hell since.”

Stay classy.

Can’t he just declare himself a counterparty and get some fat loot?

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Reader Interactions

47Comments

  1. 1.

    sgwhiteinfla

    April 16, 2009 at 7:00 pm

    Here is what’s going to suck big time. AIG will make the case that paying out claims actually puts taxpayer money at risk so this morally reprehensible move can be spun by them as beneficial to all of us. Fucking sickening.

  2. 2.

    Warren Terra

    April 16, 2009 at 7:01 pm

    Here is a link to the story.

  3. 3.

    MikeJ

    April 16, 2009 at 7:02 pm

    “They bought the cheapest thing that they could get away with,” said 51-year old John Woodson, a truck driver for the KBR contracting firm who lost his leg when his truck hit a roadside bomb in Iraq.

    The fact that it’s AIG is irrelevant. That’s just capitalism in action. They would be negligent in their duty to their stock holders if they didn’t try to screw everybody it was legal to.

    Which isn’t a defense of AIG. It’s the reason why we need to make bigger changes.

  4. 4.

    Pooh

    April 16, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Basically what he said. Also, AIG’s "insurance" divisions always made money, basically by doing this (and also by dicking with their lawyers over billing when they got sued for doing stuff like this…)

  5. 5.

    LV-426

    April 16, 2009 at 7:05 pm

    There are lots of people sitting on hijacked boats off the coast of Somalia who are also griping about AIG and their lack of payout.

  6. 6.

    Barbar

    April 16, 2009 at 7:07 pm

    Yeah, this has nothing to do with the AIG Financial Products clusterfuck, it could be any other insurance company. This is just capitalism in action.

  7. 7.

    Snowwy

    April 16, 2009 at 7:09 pm

    @MikeJ:

    Then it’s time to redefine or scrap capitalism, because if it doesn’t result in moral outcomes in cases like this, it’s barely useful to society at all, at all.

  8. 8.

    joes527

    April 16, 2009 at 7:18 pm

    This guy has got to realize that takers like himself are parasites on the makers like AIG.

  9. 9.

    Zifnab

    April 16, 2009 at 7:20 pm

    @Barbar: Better than that. This is the insurance side that everyone praised for being so profitable.

    I mean, if not for shit like this, AIG would never have had the capital to dabble in CDOs to begin with.

  10. 10.

    JL

    April 16, 2009 at 7:21 pm

    At times, most of the time, I feel that the banks should not have been bailed out last September. Money Markets froze up and most folks don’t realize that most money markets are
    not insured. If folks lost their money maybe, we would think of things differently. There is such a disconnect in this country that maybe we need a wake-up call.

  11. 11.

    Ninerdave

    April 16, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    @Pooh:

    Basically what he said. Also, AIG’s "insurance" divisions always made money, basically by doing this (and also by dicking with their lawyers over billing when they got sued for doing stuff like this…)

    Which is why we need to get rid of health insurers. They don’t reduce costs, they don’t improve care, all they do is suck money out of the system that could be used to improve health care.

  12. 12.

    KG

    April 16, 2009 at 7:22 pm

    this is why I came to the conclusion many years ago that insurance was the biggest scam imaginable. you’re betting the house that something bad is going to happen to you, and the house gets to determine if something bad did happen to you. and then the house gets to determine the odds after it has decided something bad might have happened to you. and if a lot of bad things happen to a lot of people at one time, the house just shuts down (we saw this in California after the Northridge earthquake, in New Orleans after Katrina, and well, everywhere recently).

  13. 13.

    Common Sense

    April 16, 2009 at 7:28 pm

    OT:

    And you thought Texans were nuts:

    —

    It wasn’t quite the firing on Fort Sumter that launched the Civil War. But on April 1, your Georgia Senate did threaten by a vote of 43-1 to secede from and even disband the United States.

    It was not an April Fool’s joke.

    In fact, Senate Resolution 632 did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country. It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.

    “Therefore, all acts of Congress which assume to create, define or punish [other] crimes … are altogether void, and of no force,” the Georgia Senate declared.

    The resolution goes on to endorse the theory that states have the right to abridge constitutional freedoms of religion, press and speech. According to the resolution, it is up to the states to decide “how far the licentiousness of speech and of the press may be abridged.”

    The resolution even endorses “nullification,” the legal concept that states have the power to “nullify” or ignore federal laws that they believe exceed the powers granted under the Constitution. That concept has a particularly nasty legacy. It helped precipitate the Civil War, and in the 1950s and early ’60s it was cited by Southern states claiming the right to ignore Supreme Court rulings ordering the end of segregation.

    Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. As an example, the resolution specifically states that if the federal government enacts “prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition,” the country is disbanded.

  14. 14.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 16, 2009 at 7:29 pm

    An Oklahoma man who lost an eye and a leg in Iraq says the giant insurance company AIG refused to provide him a new plastic leg and fought to keep from paying for a wheelchair or glasses for the eye in which he has 30 percent vision.

    “They bought the cheapest thing that they could get away with,” said 51-year old John Woodson, a truck driver for the KBR contracting firm who lost his leg when his truck hit a roadside bomb in Iraq.

    “Everything’s been a struggle, a constant fight,” said Woodson, injured in Oct. 2004. “It’s been hell since.”

    He’s prolly just mad he didn’t get a parrot to go with his pegleg and eyepatch.

  15. 15.

    Dexter Morgan

    April 16, 2009 at 7:32 pm

    @Common Sense:

    If these fucking dipshits want to secede, let them. I’m sick of this crazy right-wing bullshit.

  16. 16.

    Jon H

    April 16, 2009 at 7:38 pm

    " They would be negligent in their duty to their stock holders if they didn’t try to screw everybody it was legal to."

    Legal’s got nothing to do with it. They’ll screw anyone.

    AIG even did this with United Technologies. Dragged their feet on claims for years until UTC finally took them to court and won.

    That’s why the "we are contractually obligated to pay the bonuses" was such transparent bullshit. Insurance companies are in the *business* of not paying what they’re obligated to pay.

  17. 17.

    Jon H

    April 16, 2009 at 7:39 pm

    Incidentally, it’s probably time for someone to come up with insurance insurance: insurance against your insurance company refusing to pay your valid claim.

  18. 18.

    Jon H

    April 16, 2009 at 7:41 pm

    Let the South secede, as long as they pay for all Federal property first.

    It’d certainly raise the median IQ of the USA.

  19. 19.

    LV-426

    April 16, 2009 at 7:46 pm

    @Jon H:
    you mean a credit default swap?

  20. 20.

    Comrade Mary, Would-Be Minion Of Bad Horse

    April 16, 2009 at 7:47 pm

    OT: Shepard Smith keeps acting like a journalist. How can Fox allow that?

  21. 21.

    TenguPhule

    April 16, 2009 at 7:49 pm

    In fact, Senate Resolution 632 did a lot more than merely threaten to end this country. It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.

    So raping, robbing and killing Republican Reps would be legal in Georgia?

  22. 22.

    MikeJ

    April 16, 2009 at 7:50 pm

    Then it’s time to redefine or scrap capitalism, because if it doesn’t result in moral outcomes in cases like this, it’s barely useful to society at all, at all.

    Capitalism has absolutely nothing to do with moral outcomes. If anything, it makes what normal people would call moral outcomes less likely. Of course Randriods would say that this story reflects the highest possible form of morality.

    Those "protests" yesterday? This is the world they demand.

  23. 23.

    TenguPhule

    April 16, 2009 at 7:51 pm

    Let the South secede, as long as they pay for all Federal property first. back every dime of Federal Funds over taxes they paid in that went to their states, plus 9% compound interest, since the founding of the union.

    Fixed.

  24. 24.

    smiley

    April 16, 2009 at 7:52 pm

    My father is a right-wing republican lawyer and he hates insurance companies. His clients have been screwed over too many times for him to justify what they do.

    As for the Georgia senate proposing secessio — like Perry, it’s all posturing, of course. If the constitutes they are pandering to realized how much they’d lose … never gonna happen. Ft. Stewart? Bye. Yeah, right.

  25. 25.

    TenguPhule

    April 16, 2009 at 7:53 pm

    Finally, the resolution states that if Congress, the president or federal courts take any action that exceeds their constitutional powers, the Constitution is rendered null and void and the United States of America is officially disbanded. As an example, the resolution specifically states that if the federal government enacts “prohibitions of type or quantity of arms or ammunition,” the country is disbanded.

    Have we hit peak wingnut yet?

    This looks awfully close.

  26. 26.

    TenguPhule

    April 16, 2009 at 7:55 pm

    a truck driver for the KBR contracting firm who lost his leg when his truck hit a roadside bomb in Iraq.

    KBR vs AIG, whoever wins, we lose.

  27. 27.

    Jon H

    April 16, 2009 at 7:56 pm

    @LV-426: "you mean a credit default swap?"

    Kinda, except I don’t think "getting screwed by your insurance company" counts as a "default" in the usual sense.

  28. 28.

    Jrod

    April 16, 2009 at 7:57 pm

    As for the Georgia senate proposing secessio— like Perry, it’s all posturing, of course.

    Of course. It would be equally silly posturing for the US government to toss their asses is prison for treason.

    Just trying to make a point.

  29. 29.

    asiangrrlMN

    April 16, 2009 at 7:58 pm

    Wait, so the Real Americans want to secede, thereby leaving America for…what?

    Whatever. I said it before, and I’ll say it again: What a bunch of wusses.

    P.S. So an insurance company doesn’t want to, you know, actually do its purported job? What a big surprise.

  30. 30.

    Just Some Fuckhead

    April 16, 2009 at 7:59 pm

    Funny how these southern states wanna secede as soon as we get a black president. Prolly just a weird coincidence.

  31. 31.

    Blue Raven

    April 16, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Funny how these southern states wanna secede as soon as we get a black president. Prolly just a weird coincidence.

    Oh, now, don’t be pulling the race card. They have a black person in charge of the party! Bush had a racially diverse cabinet long before Obama! The GOP has no problem with good black people.

  32. 32.

    smiley

    April 16, 2009 at 8:11 pm

    @smiley:

    As for the Georgia senate proposing secessio

    You know, my dissertation adviser and I went over my nearly 250 page dissertation at least six times. Yet, when it got to the committee, they found several things like "secessio". Editing is tough (keep that in mind, John).

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Funny how these southern states wanna secede as soon as we get a black president. Prolly just a weird coincidence.

    Yeah, funny. Haha. Same with the tea parties.

  33. 33.

    Adrienne

    April 16, 2009 at 8:14 pm

    Funny how these southern states wanna secede as soon as we get a black president. Prolly just a weird coincidence.

    The time they seceded in the past was also in relation to black people! It seems like only us Knee-Grows have the ability to *truly* drive the South insane – until they quite literally secede.

  34. 34.

    Jrod

    April 16, 2009 at 8:30 pm

    The GOP has no problem with good black people.

    Neither did plantation owners.

  35. 35.

    NonWonderDog

    April 16, 2009 at 8:37 pm

    @Jon H:

    The CATO Institute is way ahead of you. They’re serious about it, too.

    And the idiots at Reason seem to like the idea.

  36. 36.

    JL

    April 16, 2009 at 8:47 pm

    How much would we save if Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana seceded? Would Fema downsize? Who would get the NASA headquarters?

  37. 37.

    jenniebee

    April 16, 2009 at 9:36 pm

    @Snowwy: Capitalism is government for the benefit of wealth. Socialism is government for the benefit of people.

  38. 38.

    Keith

    April 16, 2009 at 10:33 pm

    Anyone else reminded of that episode of Seinfeld where Kramer convinced George to help him buy a woman a used wheelchair?

  39. 39.

    J. Michael Neal

    April 16, 2009 at 11:12 pm

    Let the South secede, as long as they pay for all Federal property first.

    That’s fine as an opening position, but if they refuse to pay, I’m willing to let them go for free.

  40. 40.

    Xecklothxayyquou Gilchrist

    April 16, 2009 at 11:36 pm

    So… what kind of countertops does this Mr. Woodson have? We can’t go judging AIG until we have all the facts.

  41. 41.

    binzinerator

    April 17, 2009 at 12:09 am

    @Common Sense:

    It stated that under the Constitution, the only crimes the federal government could prosecute were treason, piracy and slavery.

    Slavery and treason only made and impression on them after they got the message after Atlanta was burned.

    The resolution goes on to endorse the theory that states have the right to abridge constitutional freedoms of religion, press and speech.

    I say burn Atlanta again and we’ll see the neo-confederates include that shit as federal prosecutable crimes too.

    Damn. The nicest most wonderful thing about Atlanta are the native Atlantans. Aw, fuck it. Burn the rest of Georgia, and leave Atlanta. It’s fucking 1890 anyways once you get 20 miles outside the city limits.

    And oh yeah. Skip the firebombing of Athens too. But people in Georgia don’t think of Athens as Georgia anyways. It’s kind of like the Island of Dr. Moreau to them — a strange place, fearful place, a place to be avoided especially after dark, a place of damned souls, a place in which if you find yourself by hapless or unforseen circumstance you must be wary (lest, crept up upon unawares, you are forced to marry a lesbian and partake of gay homo male anal sex whilst succumbing to an abortion, plus tofu and arugula).

  42. 42.

    Common Sense

    April 17, 2009 at 12:32 am

    @Just Some Fuckhead:

    Funny how these southern states wanna secede as soon as we get a black president. Prolly just a weird coincidence.

    What’s funny is these states have the highest percentage of AA in the Union. Somehow I don’t see millions of blacks in Houston, Atlanta, Alabama, Mississippi, LA, and South Carolina meekly agreeing to abandon the US just when they finally get someone they could support to lead it.

  43. 43.

    Whispers

    April 17, 2009 at 1:38 am

    The fact that it’s AIG is irrelevant. That’s just capitalism in action. They would be negligent in their duty to their stock holders if they didn’t try to screw everybody it was legal to.
    Which isn’t a defense of AIG. It’s the reason why we need to make bigger changes.

    That’s actually a weak defense of capitalism. Capitalism need not necessarily entail sociopathic behavior. It really is not the duty of the insurance company to try to screw over their policy holders as much as possible.

    The fact that we have a generation of MBAs who are devoid of ethics does not, by itself, imply that unethical behavior is either desirable or necessary in capitalism.

    AIG could make a comfortable profit if it were not so focused on the notion that business practices must be cutthroat at the expense of their own policy holders. It is fallacious to think that atavistic self-interest represents good business practice, as opposed to simply short-sighted idiocy.

    If you dig and probe at mendacity and viciousness, you’ll often find that it simply exists to hide massive incompetence.

  44. 44.

    Person of Choler

    April 17, 2009 at 1:47 am

    Bush bad. Obama fix, yes?

  45. 45.

    Cain

    April 17, 2009 at 3:35 am

    @JL:

    How much would we save if Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Louisiana seceded? Would Fema downsize? Who would get the NASA headquarters?

    I’m fairly sure our taxes would go down, don’t these states take most of our federal tax dollars? It all ends up in local politician’s pockets over there. Let em secede. The be going Galt within a year.

    cain

  46. 46.

    Common Sense

    April 17, 2009 at 5:12 am

    @Cain:

    No. Texas pays more to the federal government than they receive in taxes.

  47. 47.

    bob h

    April 17, 2009 at 7:47 am

    My wife was mugged in the lobby of a SF hotel insured by AIG. When I asked them about compensation, I was told to fuck off in very nasty terms. Not even an expression of sympathy.

    I have always regarded AIG as a sick enterprise.

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