Rush Limbaugh, the moral and spiritual leader of the conservative movement, has repeatedly defended American International Group (AIG) from criticism of its employee retention bonuses. By contrast, Limbaugh recently criticized the United Auto Workers (UAW) for the contracts it had negotiated with automakers. During a recent broadcast of his nationally syndicated radio program, Limbaugh stated: "[T]he Big Three are going down the tubes in part because of both the insane benefits for current workers, and the crazy compensation for retirees." During the same broadcast, Limbaugh commented on retiree benefits in UAW contracts, stating: "You can't pay people who produce nothing for you. And you can't pay a whole bunch of them over and over again who don't do anything, even if they have in the past."
As Media Matters has documented, Limbaugh declared on his March 17 show, "A lynch mob is expanding: the peasants with their pitchforks surrounding the corporate headquarters of AIG, demanding heads. Death threats are pouring in. All of this being ginned up by the Obama administration." In addition, on March 16, Limbaugh challenged a caller who opposed the bonuses. The caller said, "I do agree with [President] Obama trying to get these bonuses back from the AIG execs because, I mean, that's our money." Limbaugh replied, "Let me ask you a question. ... You have a company -- let's take AIG out of this 'cause they're so emotionally charged. Let's say that the company being bailed out is the XYZ Widget Company. ... We need them to manufacture widgets and sell widgets and so forth. So why in the world -- or how do you get to the point where you're going to bail out the company, but you don't want the employees to get paid?" Limbaugh later added: "[T]his is not just executives, but executives are employees, too. And in many of these firms, Nathan, their salaries are pretty small. They work on bonuses, via contract based on merit."