As I was watching the news last night everyone was in an uproar about the AIG bonuses.  It got me to thinking. What is the difference between AIG giving out bonuses using taxpayer money and Congress giving themselves pay raises using taxpayer money?   Not much.  As more information comes out it looks like Chris Dodd (D – Conn.) had something to do with putting an amendment in the legislation that protected those exact bonuses during the negotiations on the $700 billion stimulus bill.  According to Fox Business, Dodd added an executive-compensation restriction to the bill. The provision, now called “the Dodd Amendment” by the Obama Administration provides an “exception for contractually obligated bonuses agreed on before Feb. 11, 2009” — which exempts the very AIG bonuses Dodd and others are now seeking to tax. Dodd is now trying to cover his tracks and is wanting to tax these bonuses with a 98% tax.   Yes, Congress is just as much to blame as AIG.  I had to laugh when news anchor, Charles Gibson of ABC News, asked business correspondent Betsey Stark who the bonuses were going to and she said they were going to the division that essentially helped run AIG into the ground.  This made me laugh because I think about those pay raises that Congress has given themselves over the years as they run the country into the ground.