Execs Lose Pay for Failed Companies; What do Politicians Deserve for a Failed Country?
Posted on 25. Oct, 2009 by James Devere in American Politics
Congress has just flexed their regulatory muscles to rein in executive compensation. This is a feel-good class warfare story in which they can count on most of their constituents to agree that $500K per year is enough for anyone. But, has Congress looked in the mirror lately? Yes, a case can be made for cutting the pay of those who got us into the current economic mess. And Congress should be next in line.
If a failed bank is worth a 50-90% cut, then what is a failed and bankrupt Congress worth? Congress and the President give off the appearance that they are really going to crack down on the irresponsible spending in the private sector. But what of their own balance sheets?
Congressman Jeff Flake (AZ) highlights on his website the “Egregious Earmark of the Week.”
The last two weeks, Rep. Flake has identified: $335,000 for St. Croix River relocation of endangered mussels in Minnesota and Wisconsin, and $1,903,000 for the Great Plains Wind Power Test Facility in Texas.
Now, on the heels of scandal at the NEA, Fox News has uncovered spending at the NEH (National Endowment for the Humanities) that, though not scandalous, is frivolous, considering that the government does not have any money.
American families are cutting their budgets, municipalities are struggling to keep up with falling tax revenue, companies are cutting workers, but in Washington the money just keeps flowing. The audacity of our elected officials to feign outrage at executive pay while accepting no blame for their own fiscal inadequacies is example of the hypocrisy and arrogance that is our nation’s capital.
I strongly disagree with that report at Fox: http://www.theoccasional.org/2009/washington/tril...
My two cents: They are wrong on the substance of what a lot of those NEH grants are, and, frankly, a few million dollars is NOTHING in Washington these days. People concerned about the size of government need to focus on the billions and trillions (not tiny educational and cultural grants).
Andrew, I do not disagree with you on the importance of cultural grants. However, the paradox of slamming private companies for overpaying their execs, while running a deficit beyond the Bush anything Bush had dreamed of, is a hypocrisy that the congress should be ashamed of.