Claire McCaskill has come up with a novel idea – cap the bonuses companies that are receiving federal aide can pay out:
Under the bill by McCaskill, an early endorser of Obama’s presidential candidacy, employees would not be able to make more money than the U.S. president — $400,000 a year — until their companies no longer relied on government aid, such as the Troubled Asset Relief Program that bails out banks.
In an angry speech on the Senate floor, McCaskill said an average of $2.6 million dollars had been paid in bonuses to executives from the first 116 banks that got money from the rescue plan.
“I am mad,” she said. “We have bunch of idiots on Wall Street that are kicking sand in the face of the American taxpayer … They don’t get it!”
This is awesome and should have actually been part of the original TARP bill. But I am also a little miffed here. I keep wondering how much these companies will spend to lobby against this bill.