Obama brands $17bn Wall St bonuses 'outrageous'
US President Barack Obama said today it was “outrageous” that Wall Street employees got more than $17bn in bonuses last year.
White House press secretary Robert Gibbs said the president told his staff of his reaction to the report by the New York state comptroller about bonuses paid by the securities industry to its New York City employees last year.
Obama was meeting at the White House with his new treasury secretary, Timothy Geithner, and planned to say more publicly later, Gibbs said.
Obama has said in the past that financial companies accepting federal bailout money should limit bonus pay, and Gibbs said today the administration is studying what it can legally do on the topic.
“Whether it’s government or the financial system, we’re not going to be able to do what is needed to be done to stabilise our financial system if the American people read about this type of outrageous behaviour,” the presidential spokesman told reporters.
Obama met on Wednesday with several corporate chief executives, many of whom have received generous pay packages. Two executives introduced Obama at a White House event designed to lobby for swift passage of an economic stimulus bill now in Congress.
Gibbs said Obama discussed the issue with the corporate executives, and with the New York comptroller before the report’s release.
“The president doesn’t meet with CEOs where he doesn’t talk about responsibility,” he said.
In Congress, Senator Chris Dodd, chairman of the Senate Banking, Housing and Urban Affairs Committee, said he was demanding the Treasury Department figured out a way to get the money back.
“You’re never going to get any support for the continued tough decisions we have to make if this kind of behaviour continues. So I’m going to look at every possible legal means and otherwise to see that this money gets paid back,” said Dodd, a Democrat. “This infuriates the American people, and rightly so.”
