Are Executive Pay Caps Getting Sliced From the Stimulus?

[babylonsister]

This is nuts. :grr:

Are Executive Pay Caps Getting Sliced From the Stimulus?
By Elana Schor - February 11, 2009, 11:03AM


During an interview with TPMDC yesterday, a senior Democrat on the House Financial Services Committee delivered troubling news: His party could remove the Senate's strong executive pay limits from the stimulus bill in an attempt to keep the measure's costs down.

"The plan is to take out the executive compensation provisions ... and blame the Republicans for setting out the level {of $800 billion}" for the final version of the stimulus, Rep. Brad Sherman (D-CA) told me.

The Senate's limits on compensation for executives receiving government bailout money -- a welcome sign after President Obama's CEO pay caps were revealed to be riddled with loopholes -- were scored as a $10 billion money-loser by the Congressional Budget Office. Because of pressure to limit the size of the stimulus in order to retain GOP senators' support, Sherman's prediction about the executive pay caps is looking likely to come true.

But why would Democrats want to send such a bizarre signal about their commitment to reining in corporate excess? When MoveOn.org has gotten more than 300,000 signatures on a petition calling for even stronger salary caps at bailed-out companies, why would Congress want to water down its proposed pay limits?

more...

http://tpmdc.talkingpointsmemo.com/2009/02/are-executive-pay-caps-getting-sliced-from-the-stimulus.php

[Winterblues]

1. There will be nothing in the TARP that tells recipients how to spend the money.

The only thing different from the the first $350 billion is (supposedly) transparency. Democrats figure if they are being watched carefully they will not spend the money in ways that the public might find distasteful. All we can do is watch our money go bye bye and wonder why our butt hurts so much.

[DJ13]

2. CNBC had a breaking news headline an hour ago

That said the Senate had lowered the salary cap to $400,000.