The “didn’t ask for the money” whine is getting a little stale. They took the money and haven’t repaid it.
Stale or not, it's a fact.
You also didn't address the fact that they revealed the salary cap bit AFTER handing out the cash.
Oh, and remember Geithner has suggested that the government should be able to control compensation in EVERY corporation, whether they have received taxpayer money or not. The government has fired at least one executive.
This is just plain, old-fashioned, basic Fascism. The word gets abused frequently, but this time it's the real deal.
Oh really now...
In a new report, Neil Barofsky, the special inspector general for the Troubled Asset Relief Program (SIGTARP), reveals that then-Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson and key federal regulators forced the nation’s nine largest financial institutions to take billions in taxpayer bailout dollars in October 2008, threatening that if the banks refused, the government would take their stock shares anyway.
Napolitano told viewers on FNC’s April 1 “Studio B” that he had a conversation with a head of $250-billion bank that explained the federal government, under the threat of an audit, forced him to accept TARP funds. “It would cost them millions in employee time to give the government the documents it wanted, it would cost terrible publicity. The terrible publicity and that would mean a loss of business,” Napolitano continued. “He begged his board of directors to let him tell the Feds to go take a hike. The board caved. He was forced – the board was forced to issue a class of stock just for the federal government. The federal government owns 2 percent of this huge bank. As a result of that minority ownership, they now want to control salaries. They want to see his books and they want to tell him who he can do business with.”
FNC's Napolitano Claims Bush Administration Committed 'Extortion' Against Banks
American Banker's Association President Edward Yingling tried to persuade Paulson that most U.S. banks have no subprime-mortgage related troubles: “Almost 95% of banks in this country remain well-capitalized. Since that time, many banks have been contacted by regulators, and urged, sometimes forcefully, to participate in the [Capital Purchase Program].”