Why didn't Obama call for corporate pay freezes or even decreases?

[Stinky The Clown]

True enough, he doesn't have the power to make them happen, but there was nothing at all to stop him from waging a little class war. Where was he when our bailout money went straight through to the top execs at the firms responsible for our mess in the first place?

At least he's decent enough not to try to imitate Bill Clinton and tell us he feels our pain.

[polichick]

1. Read "The Mendacity of Hope" by Roger D. Hodge if you really want to know...

http://www.amazon.com/Mendacity-Hope-Betrayal-American-Liberalism/dp/006201126X/

[Catherina]

5. Otherwise known as "The Audacity of Hype" n/t

[Little Star]

14. Thanks for mentioning this book. First time I've heard of it.

I'm going to get it.

[polichick]

19. It's horrifying - but at this point I just want the truth...

It's helping me understand why Obama's rhetoric doesn't match his actions.

[Little Star]

20. The exact reason I want to get it plus.........

maybe I will understand why I feel betrayed by my own party. I know Dems have never been perfect by a long shot. But, this time it seems like a full out, in your face betrayal of Democratic principles.

[polichick]

22. I agree. The good news is a lot of Dems are waking up and looking for a new way...

...to further Democratic principles.

[AnArmyVeteran]

49. Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order limiting income to $25,000!

For a brief time in our history the rich were taxed at a 100% tax rate over $25,000. Roosevelt had the guts to go after corporations and the rich. He issued an executive order that President Obama could do in the time it takes to write his signature. But I don't expect anything bold to come from him since he won't even sign an executive order to suspend DADT.


http://www.ehow.com/about_5257213_definition-graduated-income-tax.html

History of the Graduated Income Tax in the U.S.

The graduated income tax in the United States started small. In 1913, the income tax was levied on couples who earned more than $4,000, the equivalent of more than $80,000 today, and the rate was only 7 percent. The maximum tax rate peaked at 100 percent very briefly when President Franklin Roosevelt issued an executive order that all income over $25,000 be taxed at a rate of 100 percent. This was quickly overturned by Congress but the tax rate did reach 94 percent at the end of World War II.


Read more: Definition of Graduated Income Tax | eHow.com http://www.ehow.com/about_5257213_definition-graduated-income-tax.html#ixzz16nmyzrKW

[AnArmyVeteran]

50. I forgot to add...

Can you imagine how fast the rich and corporate leaders would be on a hiring frenzy if their income was limited to say $100,000? They would truly go into a frenzy looking for ways to increase the sizes of their businesses in the US and hiring Americans instead of using overseas slave labor.

We desperately need a Franklin Roosevelt. Of course, right wingers would go insane talking about it, but they would be furious no matter what Obama did, so why even worry about them? We need bold action, not timidity from our leaders.

[Goldstein1984]

2. Because you don't talk to your boss that way.

[villager]

3. +1. Alas.

n/t

[Doctor_J]

15. Good point, Goldstein

Maybe he's afraid the billionaires will support Repukes in 2012 :eyes:

[L0oniX]

28. [phone]

[Scruffy1]

32. You are correct-its the golden rule

[ProSense]

4. Here:

Wall Street reform gives regulators power over executive pay

[Stinky The Clown]

6. I prefer not to follow blind links. Please refrain from using them if you wish to reply to me.

Thank you for understanding.

[ProSense]

11. If you run your cursor over the link, you will see the url.

Your choice, but it was also provided for others.

[bahrbearian]

31. I ran my cursor over your link and there was no url.

I'm, with Stinky I don't open on blind links.

[Name removed]

47. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Name removed]

17. Deleted sub-thread

Sub-thread removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[jaxx]

10. ProSense you are a real gem.

Thanks for all you do to dispel the rumors.

[Scurrilous]

12. + 1

:thumbsup: ProSense.

[Name removed]

24. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[TBF]

46. lolol. nt

[JTFrog]

18. +1

[Uncle Joe]

26. That's good for what it is, but from what I can tell, this only applies to the financial sector and

under certain conditions.

The last time I checked CEO salary and bonuses has exploded to over 300xs that of their average employee, this problem seems to be far wider than just the financial sector.

[Name removed]

35. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Swamp Rat]

38. LOL!

[Missy Vixen]

7. We both know why he didn't do so

Do I really need to post it here?

[leftstreet]

8. I'd happily volunteer at a Wall Street CEO food bank or homeless shelter

We've got your back!

[Sheepshank]

9. because many of us "worker bees" have already have the 2 year pay freeze.

[Doctor_J]

13. Because Big Media would scream for a week,

"Government should not set private pay rates"

[Swede]

16. Wall Street reform gives regulators power over executive pay

from the Washington Post

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/08/18/AR2010081806703.html

[JTFrog]

39. Facts are invisible here.

:rofl:

[EFerrari]

51. IIrc, there was a wrestling match over that and those measures

were not in the final.

I find only this mention so far, in trying to check my memory:

NEW YORK, Nov. 1, 2010 /PRNewswire/ -- PwC U.S.'s Annual Corporate Directors Survey found that directors overwhelmingly believe CEO pay policies could be reformed by such measures as setting minimum stock ownership guidelines, re-evaluating compensation benchmarks and devising realistic peer group comparisons. While recent legislation to reform the financial markets did include several provisions to address executive compensation issues, these concepts were not included in what ultimately became law in the Dodd-Frank Act.

http://finance.boston.com/boston/news/read?GUID=15375892

[hughee99]

21. If it's about the government saving money...

Corporate pay freezes or cuts doesn't save the government any money. In fact, the government loses money in tax revenue. If the government want to make more money, it should encourage companies to pay their employees more.

[sofa king]

23. It wouldn't have won him any points, from anyone.

We would have instantly recognized it as a hollow ruse and ignored it, as would have the other side. It wouldn't have advanced the issue past its current status, and, as we often chuckle at the ignorant prattle of Sarah Palin and her shadowy, unformed ideas of what a President can and cannot do, it would have unnecessarily exposed the White House to jabs of ignorance, weakness, and sticking its nose where it doesn't belong.

It seems to me that President Obama spent an unusual amount of time and thought on the subject of the "bully pulpit": what, exactly, a sitting President can and cannot do about issues over which he has no authority, according to legal precedent (something on which no President named Reagan or Bush ever wasted a spare moment). Like Teddy Roosevelt, we do see President Obama cheer-leading for issues over which he has little direct influence, but also like Roosevelt, President Obama seems to realize that the bully pulpit only works when the President supports an issue. Using the bully pulpit to attack ideas only exposes the President's position as powerless.

So with nobody else lifting the issue to a level at which the President can come forth and proclaim his support, corporate pay raises are a non-issue.

And, I should add, corporate pay is an issue that directly supports us, in its own evil way. It invariably harms shareholders and weakens the corporations as a whole. The jobs go overseas, but the good Americans who had those jobs first are still here, and now have every reason to change their political alignment to one which actually supports their own interests. Members of Congress are more in tune to the process than one might think, too, because jobs shipped overseas translate directly into constituents without jobs. That's an issue they either have to address or evade, depending on the size of one's trunk.

[budkin]

25. That would hurt the economy

[bvar22]

27. Now, now...There you go again,

"We wouldn't want to begrudge them their wealth."
They are just "savvy businessmen."
"I mean, look at all the baseball players."
"Its the Free Market."

[leftstreet]

29. It's why we can't have nice threads here

:-) :hi:

Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year?

Walmart Executive-Worker Pay Gap Strikes Chord in Chicago and BeyondJuly 2, 2010

By Ed Smith's math, the CEO of Walmart earns more in an hour than his employees will earn in a year.

Smith, an alderman in Chicago, presented posters at a city council meeting showing that Walmart CEO Michael Duke's $35 million salary, when converted to an hourly wage, worked out to $16,826.92. By comparison, at a Walmart store planned for the Windy City's Pullman neighborhood, new employees to be paid $8.75 an hour would gross $13,650 a year.

http://abcnews.go.com/Business/walmart-ceo-pay-hour-workers-year/story?id=11067470

[bvar22]

30. I would be laughing...

...but the tears get in the way. :cry:
Thank baby jeebus that I grew up in FDR/LBJ's America.
I CAN remember the difference.

[Mimosa]

44. ^ ' Walmart CEO Pay: More in an Hour Than Workers Get All Year?' ^

OMG.

[treestar]

33. How does he run the corporations?

This is like the right wingers who think Obama is a marxist who runs the corporations due to the GM deal.

[Swamp Rat]

37. Straw Man. eom

[DainBramaged]

34. lookout, you won't be considered a supporter for asking these kind of questions here

:scared:

[Swamp Rat]

36. and for CEOs to donate ALL their bonuses to veterans, and lower their salaries to 5 figures

until we are out of the recession.

[Karmadillo]

40. Because he gives a shit about them.

nt

[ck4829]

41. Silly Stinky, we're supposed to sacrifice our comforts to make their lives easier

Not the other way around.

:sarcasm:

K&R.

[muffin1]

42. K&R n/t

[Individualist]

43. DLC/NDC gives corporations precedence over the people.

[Name removed]

45. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[Hannah Bell]

48. good question.

[guitar man]

52. This could explain it

"no matter what your promises you promise on the campaign trail blah,blah,blah… when you win, you go into this smoky room with the twelve industrialist capitalist scum-fucks who got you in there...and you’re in this smoky room and this little film screen comes down. And a big guy with a cigar goes... ‘Roll the film.’ And, it's a shot, of the Kennedy assassination, from an angle you've never seen before.....that looks suspiciously off the grassy knoll. And then the film screen goes up and the lights come up and they go, to the new president… ‘Any questions?" - Bill Hicks


I'm thinking more and more every day that Bill Hicks was right :(

[Skittles]

53. are you kidding?

most people I know working in the corporate world not only have taken big pay cuts and pension hits, there have been dismal raises for many years and NONE for the past two years at least

[Stinky The Clown]

54. The people you know are little people.

The people alluded to in the OP are BIG people.

[sendero]

55. Because he has no authority ..

... to do so?

[Starbucks Anarchist]

56. Because that's not a power he has?

:shrug:

[Jack Sprat]

57. Because he's on their side. They are on the same team. nt