Amidst the outrage over bonuses for AIG executives, taxpayer advocates point to the fact that a provision in the conference report of the “stimulus” package made the bonuses possible in the first place. 

Prior to the vote on the conference report to H.R. 1, Americans for Tax Reform had challenged those who intended to vote for the package to promise to their constituents that they would at least read the bill before they voted for it.  However, they all refused.
 
Congressional leaders forced the vote on the conference report merely 16 hours after it was made publicly available. And most of those 16 hours were night hours.
 
The relevant provision in the section of the conference report to the “stimulus” package dealing with limiting executive pay reads:
“The prohibition required under clause (i) shall not be construed to prohibit any bonus payment required to be paid pursuant to a written employment contract executed on or before February 11, 2009…”
Says Grover Norquist, president of Americans for Tax Reform:
Taxpayers have every reason to be outraged over the AIG bonus issue – however the prime target of the rage should be Congressional leadership and all those members who voted for the trillion dollar spending and debt package refusing to read it first. 
 
You wouldn’t sign a lease without reading it first – and then these Members of Congress pass a several hundred pages monstrosity of a spending and debt package without even bothering to look at it? What else did they let slip through the cracks?