MoveOn.org petition: cough it up, you greedy bastards.

[icarus]

Senator McCaskill takes the words out of my mouth. $18.4 billion in bonuses paid to people who took bailout funds last fall. Jesus Christ.

Dear MoveOn member,

Last Friday, Sen. Claire McCaskill took to the Senate floor and said what I imagine a lot of us have been thinking about Wall Street lately:

"They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses...What planet are these people on?"1

Sen. McCaskill was reacting to the $18.4 billion in bonuses that Wall Street bankers took home in 2008. $18.4 billion going to the people who crippled our economy with their recklessness and greed and then took $700 billion of our money.2

Yesterday, President Obama took an important first step, limiting pay at companies taking bailouts going forward.3 But Congress is considering going even further, applying the limits retroactively and even taking back some of the most extravagant bonuses at firms that took taxpayer money.4

A huge public outcry will give them momentum and push them to real action. Can you sign this petition to Congress, urging them to act now to rein in Wall Street greed? Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/bonus?id=15529-3017897-hNhL5Qx&t=4

The petition says: "Congress must place enforceable, common-sense limits on salaries at all the banks that have taken taxpayer dollars."

Wall Street's defenders make all kinds of excuses about why the bonuses were justified. They say that bonuses are an accepted part of compensation packages on Wall Street, that those receiving bonuses weren't the ones who lost their firms billions of dollars, and that they need to pay bonuses to retain top talent.5

Those arguments are outrageous.

If automatic bonuses are a part of Wall Street culture, that culture has to change—a firm that's still afloat only because of huge taxpayer bailouts shouldn't be paying bonuses. And while tens of thousands of Wall Street employees are losing their jobs, it's hard to believe that those still employed will go looking for new positions because they didn't get a bonus.

Sen. McCaskill showed courage standing up to the status quo. We've got to show the rest of Congress that this is the kind of leadership we need to get us out of this crisis and make the economy work for all Americans. Limiting pay at companies taking bailouts won't fix our financial system—that will take a lot more hard work—but it's an important first step.

Can you tell Congress to rein in Wall Street's excesses now and then pass this petition on to your friends? Clicking here will add your name:

http://pol.moveon.org/bonus?id=15529-3017897-hNhL5Qx&t=5

Thanks for all you do.

–Daniel, Peter, Justin, Marika and the rest of the team

Sources:

1. "McCaskill Proposes Compensation Cap For Private Companies Getting Federal Dollars," Senate Newsroom, January 30, 2009
http://mccaskill.senate.gov/newsroom/vid_013009.cfm

2. "What Red Ink? Wall St. Paid Fat Bonuses," The New York Times, January 28, 2009
http://www.nytimes.com/2009/01/29/business/29bonus.html

3. "Obama Outlines Limits on Executive Pay," The Washington Post, February 5, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51145&id=15529-3017897-hNhL5Qx&t=6

4. "Despite Treasury's New Rule, Senators Aren't Giving Up Their Push to Cap CEO Pay," TPMDC, February 4, 2009
http://www.moveon.org/r?r=51146&id=15529-3017897-hNhL5Qx&t=7
5. "'Meet the Press' transcript for Feb. 1, 2009," MSNBC.com, February 1, 2009
http://www.msnbc.msn.com/id/28964188/page/5/

Retain top talent ... where is their top talent gonna go? Singapore? These aren't the guys who lost the firm money ... neither did the workers who got laid off, yet the whole company pays.

Dear Mr. Bank Exec: newsflash. The money wasn't for you. Now cough it up.

Comments

[princessofg.livejournal.com]

i'm telling you; foxes guarding the henhouses. i'm sick.

[greenling.livejournal.com]

There was actually an editorial in the paper today about how the best thing we could do to stop the recession would be to give corporations a couple of years off from having to pay taxes.

I no longer understand what sort of world these people are living in where they see any evidence that this is a good idea.

[reedfem.livejournal.com]

They keep using that same excuse, that all their top talent will leave if they don't pour money on them.

Funny, they don't seem all that talented to me.

Just saying.

[mad_maudlin]

CLAIRE FTW. (She is my senator.)

The concentration of wealth has to end.

[inkscribe.livejournal.com]

I think the proper thing for me to say here is "word" ... but sometimes I'm not so hip and might have gotten it wrong.

Seriously, it boggles the mind, doesn't it? As reedfem says above, they don't seem all that talented to me (nor to me, for that matter).

[the-gentleman.livejournal.com]

Damn right. I've nothing against massive salaries- but not from taxpayer's money, and not as a reward for failure. If you want to do that, you pay for it out of the company's profits and explain it to the shareholders.

[thatratorpheus.livejournal.com]

The bonuses are the least of it - they can't keep flinging money all over the place without making sure it's going where it's supposed to go. Congress has been in bed with the banking industry since day one - now that the people are outraged, they're outraged.

But you're quite right, the "excuses" for large bonuses are bogus. Top talent will always go for top pay, but if the top pay is something less, then that's what they'll go for instead - it's just a repricing of the market. The only legitimate excuse for paying out those bonuses is if there were contractual obligations - it's not easy to screw around with employment contracts.