Posted on 12/26/2007 1:15:28 PM PST by LowCountryJoe
You've probably seen Huckabee rail against CEO pay (if you haven't, see here and here, but until now, Huckabee has not been clear about what exactly he would do about CEO pay if he were President. Yesterday, CNBC's John Harwood asked Mike Huckabee just that.
HUCKABEE: It’s a combination. It’s when one person losing his job who helped make the company successful and the person who steers the company either into bankruptcy or selling off it in pieces is taking that golden parachute of several hundred million dollars. I mean, there’s just something wrong about that, and every American knows it, whether he’s at the top or bottom. What the government ought to do is, first of all, call attention to it, put some spotlight on it. I don’t think it’s about coming up with some new regulation. Corporate boards ought to show some responsibility. If a board allows that kind of thing to happen, shame on that board. And I would hope that it wouldn’t necessitate additional laws and regulation because usually when you get into regulation, it just gets worse and it makes it [an] even bigger problem than you had to begin with.
HARWOOD: So you wouldn’t actually do anything about it as the head of the government? You would simply use the pulpit to talk about it?
HUCKABEE: That would be the first line of maybe offense, perhaps John. And then what I would like to see is the corporate board showing responsibility with an understanding that if they don’t start showing some responsibility, then they’re going to end up forcing government to take action, which is the worst thing that could happen and it only exacerbates a problem rather than actually solves it.
Huckabee's response is emblematic of his governing approach. He claims government is not the answer, but, at the end of the day, he is willing to use government to achieve the results he deems morally necessary. Notice also how Huckabee inoculates himself, arguing that he would be forced to impose government regulations because of inaction on the part of corporate boards. It is a clever political gambit that allows him to claim opposition to new regulations in principle, while he imposes them left and right because others are "forcing" him to do so.
Govern yourself or we'll govern for you. Just that he's willing to go this populist commie "hate the rich" route is a point against Huckabee for me.
We should pass a federal law banning governors from accepting more money in gifts than their salary. What do ya think Huck??? lol
Then let him run for chairman of the board, but since he's running for President he IS talking about federal intervention ---
or not. Huck seems more than a tad bit confused about that point. Of course dig more than an inch into the soil of any of Huck's policy positions and you run into a bewildering mess of intersecting roots that cannot be untangled by any device known to man. To grow crops in the Hucka-soil you need a very heavy dose of fertilizer.
Companies are allowed to run stupidly because shareholders are stupid and do not believe that they are fractional owners of a company with voting rights.
Wait, the fertilizer is already there. What is missing is substance, any kind of consistent substance will work.
First job of a moral person is take responsibility for your actions.
they’re going to end up forcing government to take action
Weasel.
Why does anyone care if the failed CEO of a company gets a $50 retirement parachute, but not care when Jason Giambi gets paid $175 million after duping the investors of the Yankees into thinking he was worth anything without steroids? What about failed coaches of the NBA? Should they give the money back? Should the taxpayers regulate their salaries? Where does this nanny state crap end?
The Huckster pushed a minimum wage increase in Arkansas. If a minimum wage is a good idea, why not a maximum wage?
Yes, I understand it. Huckabee vetoed plenty of legislation during his tenure as governor.
Is that a serious question? And do you think that minimum wage legislation is good?
If you want to look at real corruption look no further than the halls of Congress! Both federal and state levels.
These people make corrupt CEO's look like pikers.
That was tried years ago when there was an earlier cry to tie the performance of the company to the CEO’s compensation. What resulted was what we have today; compensation measured against the yardstick of stock price and the growth of the total capitalization of the company.
Turn on your sarcasm detector. :)
Minimum wage legislation is, in my view, evil and insidious. It harms people and society in direct relation to the level at which it is set. Huckabee likes it, which is why I think a "maximum wage" law would logically appeal to him. But it's socialism, and the Huckster is nothing more than a Christian, pro-life socialist.
A pre-9/11 Presidential candidate
Who would have thought that we could see
A prez as weak as Huckabee?
Another Clinton, who when pressed,
Will not defend the brave, free West.
“Fools rush in,” ‘tis often said.
But wimps like Huck can make us dead.
Okay, just checking. It would appear that my detector had a lose wirenut to the neutral wire.
Nah. It's just that govt. is a better alternative than a rope.
These big government types all have the heart of a bully. They grab your hand and smack your face with it and say, why are you hitting your self?. SLAPP! stop hitting yourself.
Ask M. Vick about giving back his salary. He is in Jail, Owes the Falcons $20 Million in contract reimbursements and owes his banks/creditors $26 Million.
Give me a break. Huck used a run on sentence in an unscripted response to a question. I’m shocked, simply shocked. The basic message was clear enough.
My how petty criticism on FR can get...
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