Angry senator wants pay cap on Wall Street 'idiots'

CNN ^ | 1/30/2009 | CNN

[Red in Blue PA]

WASHINGTON (CNN) -- One day after President Barack Obama ripped Wall Street executives for their "shameful" decision to hand out $18 billion in bonuses in 2008, Congress may finally have had enough.

An angry U.S. senator introduced legislation Friday to cap compensation for employees of any company that accepts federal bailout money. Under the terms of a bill introduced by Sen. Claire McCaskill, D-Missouri, no employee would be allowed to make more than the president of the United States.

Obama's current annual salary is $400,000.

[bronxboy]

These people are not competent...they have bankrupted their companies, and our country.

[bronxboy]

If you are a struggling company...you can’t afford to pay 100 million in salaries and bonus...the morons bankrupted their companies and should all be fired...new management is needed. Also, get rid of the boards...bastions of cronyism and return control to stockholders.

[bronxboy]

You think Claire is stupid. How do you think this will play on Main Street...the Repubs are being set up big time.

[bronxboy]

You forget that these banks are going to receive more bailout money with strings this time. I think you would agree if they take the money, they must abide by the rules? Don’t take the money otherwise...Citi is still insolvent and so is AIG...they need more money.

[edcoil]

“Bonuses for mid-level federal employees are designed primarily to cheat them out of retirement credits.”

You mean pay them for not working.

[hotshu]

“We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer,” an enraged McCaskill said on the floor of the Senate. “They don’t get it. These people are idiots. You can’t use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses.”

++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++++

This bitch doesn’t realize the true stupidity of her own words! She has declared herself as one who can decide how to spend $1.2 trillion of OUR money without having done anything to earn a penny!!!

She knows the only idiots involved here are the democrat voters who will return their whip crackers to D.C. every two years.

Truly abominable.

[TigersEye]

Why should any of the real producers stay and help those companies if they aren't going to be compensated according to merit?

Head for Galt's Gulch, fellas. The leeches are homing in on you.

[Las Vegas Ron]

BS. It is the MSM and the Dems creating the perception

It's sooo nice to read from someone who get's it and hasn't fallen for the control trap.

[meyer]

You forget that these banks are going to receive more bailout money with strings this time. I think you would agree if they take the money, they must abide by the rules? Don’t take the money otherwise...Citi is still insolvent and so is AIG...they need more money.

The government was stupid for not attaching strings last time - it was a gift basically. While I'm against all bailouts, I would think that if dot-gov is going to give away tax dollars, they would make some kind of binding stipulation that the money be used for the intended purpose.

[MaxMax]

The way I see it, anyone holding public office should be held to the same STANDARDS!
Those ass-hats somehow make MILLIONS after they take office.
Come On, lets get down to it!

[bronxboy]

This is not true there were stings.. just not enforced yet. Also,these banks need more money...so you can just bet there will be more strings. I have heard many on this thread applaud the tough rules for auto companies...however, Wall Street is different. Why? They obviously have a very poor business model. They pay hefty salaries and bonuses that are not based on the companies success...Citi paid out more than they are now worth in Bonuses and compensation in 2008...This is obscene...they used our money. Now they want more...sorry you took the money so now you are a failed enterprise under government control.

[bronxboy]

There were stings and oversight...only the Bush administration did not enforce them. However, this is changing.

[bronxboy]

Google bailout/bonus. It’s playing very well on main street...you know average voters.

[bronxboy]

This is my biggest issue...these people have convinced...millions that capitalism...is a failure. No one will ever trust the street again...how sad.

[ViLaLuz]

Paycaps for the global elite with their fingers in American politics... like the Clintons.

[bronxboy]

The government did not hold a gun to these Wall Street thugs heads and force them to leverage 60-1, pay huge salaries and bonuses when the company was failing nor did the government chop up bad mortgages and send them round the world.

The damage these guys did is not limited to the US...they have bankrupted Iceland and caused banks to be on the verge of failing in every European country...Wall street has bankrupted this country and possibly the entire world...saying it’s the government’s fault will not make it so...just like attempting to blame Obama when this all happened on Bush’s watch will not make it so. Go on google and hit bonus; main street is livid. They blame the Wall Street bankers-any Repub who defends these guys will pay a political price.

Flame me if you want, but I think Pres. Bush was mostly checked out the last couple of years in terms of domestic policy. He let the Harvard grad geniuses like paulson and Bernake run things...bad idea Mr. President.

[Richard Kimball]

Well, this is the problem. For some people, capitalism is a failure. Half the people in this country are below average intelligence. They couldn't turn a profit with a popsicle stand if you gave them the popsicles and made it illegal for anyone else to sell popsicles (see the post office.) So, they're not smart enough; they can't compete. They lose.

Now, compounding this is the fact that many large businesspeople aren't REALLY capitalists. They simply want the game rigged in their favor. They argue for capitalism while slathering congressional pockets to have laws implemented that have nothing to do with capitalism; only with benefit to their bottom line.

Now, this is the area where I part company with many of the Ayn Rand freepers. Without a sense of morality, and by that I mean true Christian morality, golden rule, do unto others, all that; capitalism will eat itself and become so unpopular that it will be eliminated in favor of a "fair" socialist system.

Most people don't think philosophically. They live day to day. When Citibank and others pushed through a banking bill that allowed them to jack up interest rates because a borrower got a negative credit report from another lender, take an interest rate from 6.99% to 34% if you were one day late with a payment once, charge an additional $39 for a late payment or underpayment, and THEN went to the government for a multibillion dollar buyout at taxpayer expense WHILE ordering corporate jets and paying massive bonuses, the average person isn't going to think philosophically. They're going to want someone to "nail those bastids." Here comes Obama, preaching about unicorns crapping Skittles, and he's going to make it all better. He's a flim-flam man. You know it and I know it, but Obama "feels their pain" while Citibank was sending a guy threatening letters about his credit being bad while getting Uncle Sam to buy the company hotshots a corporate jet.

[Richard Kimball]

The way I see it, anyone holding public office should be held to the same STANDARDS!
Those ass-hats somehow make MILLIONS after they take office. Come On, lets get down to it!

[bronxboy]

I agree with everything you say...only I don’t think over 50 % of the people are stupid only desperate...I got laid off today...effective 4-1-2009 so I understand desperation and I got a better deal than most. People are hurting, and while I know the government played a role...Wall Street really destroyed themselves...because they were immoral-just as you noted. Average people are pissed. If Wall Street doesn’t reign itself in...the government will have plenty of support from Main Street to do it with compensation caps are some other form of control...I don’t want this, but it will happen.Wall Street, heal thyself.

[chrisser]

If you are a struggling company...you can’t afford to pay 100 million in salaries and bonus

Exactly. You should go bankrupt in that position. But if you receive a large infusion of cash, then you ought to get the best leaderhip you can afford, and capping salaries isn't going to give you that.

the morons bankrupted their companies and should all be fired...new management is needed

I think so, but I didn't invest in these companies, and I didn't support the bailout, so obviously nobody's listening to my opinion.

Also, get rid of the boards...bastions of cronyism and return control to stockholders.

There are likely thousands if not tens of thousands of corporations in the U.S. that work just fine under standard corporate governance. I think you're suggesting we throw the baby out with the bathwater.

What keeps this corruption, for lack of a better word, in place is the divorce between decision making and responsibility. Unfortunately, the primary cause of this is government. More government isn't going to make that go away - it will only make it worse. Companies that are poorly run should be allowed to fail, and fail spectacularly, noisily and publicly. Those responsible, when guilty for breaking law, should be prosecuted swiftly and shamed roundly. That is the solution, not giving morons in Congress control.