Bush takes aim at CEO pay

www.cnn.com ^ | January 31st, 2007 | Associated Press

[Mazda3Fan]

NEW YORK (AP) -- President Bush took aim Wednesday at lavish salaries and bonuses for corporate executives, standing on Wall Street to issue a sharp warning for corporate boards to "step up to their responsibilities" and tie compensation packages to performance.

Bush's "State of the Economy" speech, delivered from the financial center of the world, was aimed at bringing his economic message out of the shadows of the Iraq war.

[Mazda3Fan]

It's seeing things like this that lead to my lack of confidence in the GOP as a force for individual rights as well as the rights of corporations to govern themselves. This sounds like something that would come out of the mouth of Ted Kennedy.

[gcruse]

Boy, elections really matter, don't they? The last one turned Bush into Ralph Nader.

[Uncle Miltie]

Bush is calling for better Board independence and review. That’s good. The reporter lied when he said that Bush was taking aim at lavish salaries and bonuses. He was not commenting on or suggesting control of the outcome price, only the requirement (admittedly poorly attended to) that boards be stronger shareholder advocates.

[Non-Sequitur]

Bush takes aim at CEO pay

Nothing that a few thousand H-1B CEOs couldn't solve.

[libertarianPA]

The Medicare Prescription Plan, Farm Subsidies, bailing out on Social Security reform, support for the minimum wage hike, now this... Yep. His transformation into a full-fledged Socialist is pretty much complete.

[Mazda3Fan]

I hope that's true because it seems that the gap between Republican and Democrat is closing more and more.

[BigSkyFreeper]

It's a left winged biased reporter's job to misreport what a Republican president said. Bush hadn't even stepped away from the podium, and the CNBC anchorette was already distorting the facts of the speech.

[OldFriend]

You should have seen the rock star reception Dubya got when he arrived on the floor of the NY stock exchange.

[always vigilant]

If people think CEO's make too much money they should look at the highly unregulated hedge fund industry.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Farm Subsidies

They're being cut $18 billion this year.

[A Citizen Reporter]

"Bush is calling for better Board independence and review. That’s good. The reporter lied when he said that Bush was taking aim at lavish salaries and bonuses."

Precisely. I'm watching him speak to Cavuto about this right not. Much as Cavuto is trying to bait him into saying that the Federal government (and Congress) ought to get into setting CEO salaries, he is saying that it should be done by the company shareholders.

The press in this country really stinks. You can't believe a word they say.

And that includes this interview with big fat democrat Neil Cavuto.

[Fierce Allegiance]

This is the wwrong thing for a conservative to attack. Oh yeah.

[A Citizen Reporter]

Who I think is highly overpaid in CONGRESS.

Those traitors ought to have their salaries cut.

[libertarianPA]

It's seeing things like this that lead to my lack of confidence in the GOP as a force for individual rights as well as the rights of corporations to govern themselves.

The GOP should have stood up to this Socialist A-hole when he introduced that prescription drug plan. If they were smart, they would issue a rebuttal to Bush's speech, introduce Social Security reform, health care deregulation, rejection of environmental efforts to ruin our economy, etc. The sooner they start differentiating themselves from the Dems, the sooner they'll regain power. As it stands now, they're no different.

George W. Bush has single-handedly set the conservative movement back at least a decade - unless the GOP starts actually acting like conservatives.

[Mazda3Fan]

Good point. Another reason that so many CEOs get paid so much, they're worth it. I can't imagine that any board is going to pay a CEO millions of dollars per year plus bonuses if they don't have what it takes.

[what's up]

Exactly...Pres. Bush is advocating that CEO compensation be tied more to performance and shareholder review.

He's not pushing any Gov't role as is Barney Frank...this is a good position for the President to take since CEO salaries are going to be a target for the Dem congress and Spitzer...no doubt in conjunction with some type of legislation.

[BigSkyFreeper]

Laughable. There was a time when Cavuto was all for CEO's making as much as they want (after all they earned it), and retiring on 400% pension increases, and for the government to stay out of the way. LOL

[Hildy]

Who's a conservative?

[libertarianPA]

warning for corporate boards to "step up to their responsibilities" and tie compensation packages to performance

If Mr. Bush was to apply this standard to himself, he would be starving and living under a bridge.