[Congressional Record Volume 155, Number 19 (Friday, January 30, 2009)]
[Senate]
[Page S1127]
From the Congressional Record Online through the Government Publishing Office [www.gpo.gov]

      By Mrs. McCASKILL:
  S. 360. A bill to limit compensation to officers and directors of 
entities receiving emergency economic assistance from the Government; 
to the Committee on Banking, Housing, and Urban Affairs.
  Mrs. McCASKILL. Mr. President, I could not agree more with my 
colleague from Rhode Island. There are a lot of things we need in this 
country right now. We need jobs. We need something to stimulate our 
economy. We need certainty in the credit market. But probably more than 
anything what we need in this country right now is confidence, 
confidence that we can face down these problems and move forward like 
America has always done.
  What do we have instead of confidence? Raw anger. I am mad. Everyone 
I work for is mad. Anger can be constructive. It can be channeling. I 
am here today to say it is time we channel this anger and change the 
law. We do not need anger. We have a bunch of idiots on Wall Street who 
are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer. My colleague 
talked about some of them. Let me review. These financial institutions, 
on the brink of extinction, come to the American taxpayer for hundreds 
of billions of dollars at the very same time they think they are going 
to buy a $50 million corporate jet. They are going to pay out $18 
billion in bonuses. They paid an average of $2.6 million to every 
executive at the first 116 banks that got taxpayer money under TARP. 
Let me say that again: An average of $2.6 million in executive pay to 
the folks at the first 116 banks that got money from the taxpayers.

  They don't get it. These people are idiots. You can't use taxpayer 
money to pay out $18 billion in bonuses. Merrill Lynch is unbelievable. 
They saved $3 billion to $4 billion from the pot of money that was 
going to Bank of America, the sale that was going to close the first 
week in January. They always gave bonuses in January. Do you know what 
these sneaky guys did? They decided to give their bonuses in December 
before the Bank of America took over. They paid out $3 billion to $4 
billion in bonuses in December, and that quarter, Merrill Lynch lost 
$21 billion. What planet are these people on? What could they be 
thinking about?
  So here is what this bill is going to do. This is called the Cap 
Executive Officer Pay Act of 2009, and it is very simple. Going 
forward, you want taxpayers to help you survive? You want the people at 
your financial institution to have a job tomorrow? Then you are going 
to have to limit everyone's pay at your company to the same salary the 
President of the United States makes. Is that so unreasonable? It is 
eight times the median household income in the United States of 
America--$400,000 a year. I don't think that sounds like a bad deal. 
Should these people be making more than the President of the United 
States? Now, really, should they? They should not be making more than 
the President of the United States. So every executive going forward 
could not make more than $400,000 a year, and they have to limit that 
executive compensation for everyone in their company until they pay 
back every dime to the taxpayers.
  Now, once they are off the public dole, once the taxpayers aren't 
footing the bill, then it is not as much our business what they get 
paid. But right now, they are on the hook to us, and they owe us 
something other than a fancy wastebasket and a $50 million jet. They 
owe us some common sense. If any of them think it is a hardship to take 
the salary of the President of the United States, I dare them to say so 
out loud right now because that is not going to instill confidence.
  What is going to instill confidence is for the men and women in these 
companies to realize it is time for everyone in this country to tighten 
their belt. It is time for everyone to realize we must have our 
financial institutions survive but not with a culture that thinks it is 
OK to kick the taxpayer in the shins while they drink champagne and fly 
in fancy jets. It doesn't work; not in the United States of America.
  I ask my colleagues to sign on to this bill. I think it makes sense. 
We should have done it in the first place, but I don't think any of us 
thought these guys were this stupid. I don't think any of us believed 
they would take billions of dollars of bonuses while their institutions 
were literally days from being wiped out, but they did, and we have 
learned our lesson.
  So I hope all my colleagues will sign on this bill. I hope we can get 
it passed quickly so that from this day forward, the President of the 
United States will make the same amount of money as the executives of 
these companies who owe the taxpayers hundreds and hundreds of billions 
of dollars.
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