Asked about the bonuses before practice for Sunday's race at Bristol Motor Speedway, the politically engaged driver faulted Congress for not placing tighter restrictions on the $182.5 billion in bailout money the U.S. government has given AIG.
"I think that Congress screwed it up, and it sure would be nice to have somebody stand up and say "You know what? I screwed up and supported sending tax dollars to a company to bail them out and didn't put more stipulations in there,"' Burton said.
"Congress is ripping all the lenders for screwing the country up -- guess what they are? They're a lender that screwed that up. So how are they any different? So it sure would be nice to see one of them stand up and say "We should have done something different rather than just point the finger at each other."'
AIG has handed out $165 million in employee bonuses, a move that has touched off a national firestorm.
Lawmakers voted Thursday to impose a 90 percent tax, and in some cases a 100 percent tax, on the employee bonuses. Similar legislation has been introduced in the Senate and President Barack Obama quickly signaled general support for the concept.
But Burton said AIG employees never should have accepted the bonuses, and the company never should have paid them out.
"The people at AIG should have enough sense not to take the bonus," he said. "But the people who gave the money to them ought to have had enough sense not to do that, either."
Burton, who grew up in Virginia but lives in North Carolina, has said he's interested in running for office when his NASCAR career is over. Many people have speculated he'll run for Senate in Virginia.
