Bush Administration Protected Executive Pay
Posted by Matt Ortega on December 15, 2008 at 03:34 PM
According to congressional aides and lawmakers, the Bush administration slipped in a single sentence in legislation that created a giant loophole for executives at failed Wall Street institutions to keep their huge payoffs. Just another day in the Bush/Cheney White House. Washington Post reports:
Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the rules.
But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.
Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.
Comments (5) «
And who would have thought they would do something like that. Whenever the Republicans want Democrats to approve something quickly you have to figure they have ulterial motives.
There wasn't a WMD crisis and I'm thinking that there wasn't an immediate bank failure problem either...just a problem making sure all the GOP's friends on Wall Street didn't get thrown out on the street when the shit hit the fan.
The thing is, we knew that the current administration would find a way to provide those "Golden Parachutes".
The "Bushies" strike again.
Can't have nationally sponsored health care. Can't fully fund "No Child Left Behind". Can't do anything that benefits THE PEOPLE. But we can make sure that multi-millionaires are able to maintain the Republican lifestyle that they so richly deserve.
It is time to leverage some justice. The same standards that are being demanded of auto - needs to be demanded of the financial institutions. This story is like the scene from the Wizard of OZ - the curtain is lifted - and the GOP was about raping this country economically from start to finish. We should nationalize their assets and call it "Country First" - and stop all their air travel (the one's who received the payouts) lest they run off to Argentina to be among people of their ilk (former Nazis). These people belong in prison.
We also ought to cut out not only the large salaries but also the enormous amount of "perks"for these CEO's such as corporate jets and corporate cars and compel them to use commercial transportation to stimulate the economy they "drove into the ground"in the first place!!!!
How does the clause not apply? By taking the money in exchange for part ownership in the bank (The troubled asset) they must still abide by the terms and conditions mentioned.
Democrats who have law degrees certainly aren't very well versed in legalities.
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