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Amid simmering outrage over $165 million in bonuses paid to executives at ailing ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½, Representative Barney Frank said Monday it may be time to fire some people at the insurance giant.

“These people may have a right to their bonuses but they don’t have a right to their jobs forever,” Frank, a Massachusetts Democrat who heads the House Financial Services Committee, said on NBC’s “Today” program.

ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½ has received $173 billion in federal bailout money and is at the heart of a global financial crisis that President Barack Obama is trying to address with plans for trillions of dollars in spending.

“The federal government now is the 80 percent owner (of ÌìÃÀÍøÕ¾´«Ã½´«Ã½),” Frank said. “These bonuses are going to people who screwed this thing up enormously … Since the federal government … now essentially owns that company, maybe it’s time to fire some people.”

(Writing by Deborah Zabarenko; Editing by Bill Trott)

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