We are mad as hell

Claire McCaskill is mad as hell and so am I. Don’t get me wrong. I don’t disagree with bonuses, especially when the companies are making insane profits, like during the mid 2000s. I understand that Wall Street augment their salary structure with bonus payments for various purposes. However, I have a problem when financial institutions like Merrill Lynch takes TAXPAYER money from TARP to pay out bonuses for their executives. How can you justify 5 billion in bonuses when your company just lost 21 BILLION dollars and are asking for federal assistance? When your business is on the verge of bankruptcy, it’s time to reconsider compensation packages along with reduction in force and other methods. In my own industry, people are losing jobs left and right. Those still employed, we are taking pay cuts, reduction in hours, benefits, etc. in order to survive and pay our bills, and we do all of these without the help of the government or taxpayers.

I also can’t believe that some on Wall Street are trying to defend their bonuses as if we, the taxpayer, owed them. Don’t try to justify taxpayers paying your bonus payments by telling me that you work hard for the money. That’s an insult to all Americans who don’t make your money, as if we don’t work just as hard.Are you telling me that the coal miners, who spend most of their days in the dark, don’t work just as hard if not harder to provide the power to run your infrastructure? and don’t throw around terms like Socialism when you don’t understand what it means. Responsibility in these times are not socialism. Curtailing the bonuses that the taxpayers are picking up is not socialism.

Desperate times call for desperate measures. Claire McCaskill is right. If you are going to come to the taxpayer and ask for help to keep your company alive, you need to show fiscal responsibility and restrain in executive pay. If you can’t be responsible enough for your own company, then we the people will have to be responsible for you. If you take TARP money, the people of America owns the company until you pay the TARP money back. I am sorry that you will be forced to live on eight times the median income until your company is back on solid footing and the taxpayer is not paying your bills. I’m sorry that you will have to fly economy instead of first class or private jets. I am sorry that you will have to give up the dinners at michelin rated restaurants for something cheaper. I am sorry that $400,000 is not enough to cover your luxurious living. I’m sorry that life is so hard for all of you and I am sorry that you will still live a better life than 90% of all Americans.

Watch her fiery speech

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