Want to go to a SPA ?

I'm beginning to think that the ATAA Blog needs an award. Something befitting the enormous "Cajones" we see swinging so prevalently in these "Winds of Fall".

We have come to expect "pork barrel spending" and all sorts of wonderful exotic "learning junkets" that our esteemed politicians engage in. But this, oh this is a classic..... Your money, hard at work people!!!

Days after AIG received $85 BILLION in loans from the government (a.k.a. US) to save their proverbial "asses", Executives went to the St. Regis Monarch Beach, a coastal location just south of Los Angeles. It really is a nice place, looks very relaxing. The Tuscan-inspired resort is described as "............Situated high on a bluff overlooking the majestic Pacific Ocean, stands a landmark resort of legendary proportions."

Legendary is a good word here.

When the smoke cleared, they racked up a tab of almost half a million dollars ($443,344 to be exact) and guess who got the bill !!!!

I guess in today's economic market, that total wasn't so bad. I just wish they had sent us taxpayers a postcard so we would know they were having a good time. But I guess at $.27 X 200,000,000.00 I don't think we could have afforded it.

Since we are bailing out everyone and their brother lately, can WE claim this on our tax return ?

Here are the line item amounts for this little R&R session:

$147,302 for banquets
$139,375 on rooms
$23,380 for spa services
$6,939 for golf
$5,016 at the Stonehill Tavern
$3,065 for in-room dining and the lobby lounge
$2,949 for gratuities
$1,901 at the Monarch Bayclub
$1,488 at the resort’s Vogue Salon

The best part is they are asking now for $37.8 billion.

Legendary..................

BREAKING NEWS: 10/09/08 Washington D.C. - Evoking its emergency powers to combat financial market stress, the Federal Reserve on Wednesday said it was lending $37.8 billion in additional cash troubled American International Group Inc.

As of last week, AIG had already used $60 billion of the original $85 billion.

Ask and ye shall receive........... pack your bags kids, next stop a week of Aqua-Aerobics in Venice,...... Italy

Andrew,
The Angry American