Projo Subterranean Homepage News

Long (5:33) segment of Obama's press conference with the Treasury Secretary Tim Geithner yesterday includes the President calling bonuses to Wall Street bankers while they ask for bailouts "shameful."

My friend Robert, who is well-bred, conservative, and livid says, "The *kleptocracy is looting the country,."

(*kleptocracy: government by those who seek chiefly status and personal gain at the expense of the governed. Root klepto+kratein = rule by thieves)

From the White House transcript:,

One point I want to make is that all of us are going to have responsibilities to get this economy moving again. And when I saw an article today indicating that Wall Street bankers had given themselves $20 billion worth of bonuses -- the same amount of bonuses as they gave themselves in 2004 -- at a time when most of these institutions were teetering on collapse and they are asking for taxpayers to help sustain them, and when taxpayers find themselves in the difficult position that if they don't provide help that the entire system could come down on top of our heads -- that is the height of irresponsibility. It is shameful.

And part of what we're going to need is for folks on Wall Street who are asking for help to show some restraint and show some discipline and show some sense of responsibility. The American people understand that we've got a big hole that we've got to dig ourselves out of -- but they don't like the idea that people are digging a bigger hole even as they're being asked to fill it up.

And so we're going to be having conversations as this process moves forward directly with these folks on Wall Street to underscore that they have to start acting in a more responsible fashion if we are to together get this economy rolling again. There will be time for them to make profits, and there will be time for them to get bonuses -- now is not that time. And that's a message that I intend to send directly to them, I expect Secretary Geithner to send to them -- and Secretary Geithner already had to pull back one institution that had gone forward with a multimillion dollar jet plane purchase at the same time as they're receiving TARP money. We shouldn't have to do that because they should know better. And we will continue to send that message loud and clear.

If the government gave us the money to give to the banks, applicable to our debt, we and the banks could all get a leg up on a fresh start at the same time: Much more bang for the buck.

Jon Stewart agrees:

Jon Stewart presents his bailout plan, Jan. 27

 Tags  Obama

---

Leave a comment

Name:

Email:

URL:  

Remember personal info?

Captcha:

Type the characters you see in the picture above.