Posted on 01/30/2009 11:01:17 PM PST by John Semmens
Inspired by anger over billions of dollars in bonuses handed out to Wall Street bankers for the last year’s largely dismal performance, President Obama declared that “now is not the time for these businesses to make a profit.”
In an unprecedented expansion of the concept of the president as the US “commander-in-chief,” Obama insisted that “in this time of economic crisis, my administration will make war on profiteering. As long as one person is without a job, those who are fortunate enough to be employed must not be allowed to take bonuses. As long as one business is in bankruptcy, those businesses enjoying a profit must sacrifice to spread the wealth around. We are all in this together. All must contribute to the good of the collective whole. As president, it is my job to see to it that all equitably share in the bounty produced by our economy.”
Obama’s position received support in congress. Senator Chris Dodd (D-Conn) demanded that the government “seize the bonus payments and excess profits of Wall Street” and add the money to the “stimulus” package now under debate in the senate. “These greedy profiteers must not be allowed to make decisions that are rightfully the prerogative of the people’s elected representatives,” Dodd argued. “This is the mandate for change voters demanded when they opted for the Democrats in November.”
Senator Claire McCaskill (D-Missouri) seconded Dodd’s remarks and introduced a bill that would cap the salaries that could be paid to anyone in America to no more than that made by the US President. “President is the most important job in the world,” she asserted. “No one should be more highly compensated than he is.”
To “avoid subterfuges,” McCaskill’s bill targets “total compensation.” “There will be no skirting the law by funneling pay into bonuses, capital gains, profit-sharing, or any of the other clever dodges used by corporations to elude taxes,” she vowed. “Income from any and all sources, for any and all persons will be capped at the amount we pay the president. It is the height of arrogance for anyone to expect more.”
The president’s current salary is $400,000 per year.
read more...
http://www.azconservative.org/Semmens1.htm
Thanks for the early morning chuckle John.
Humor, Satire specifically along with some hardball, earnest grassroots efforts on the part of true Conservative activism IMO are tools we must use in our efforts to expose the Socialist, Commie direction of the current crowd whom have lied and cheated their way into the leadership positions within our Government.
Daily they expose themselves with radical dictum reflecting the idealogical basis from which their perspective eminates.
You are doing an impressive job of capturing, and enhancing their idiotological perspectives and statements, thus exposing their idiocy with your satirical commentary.
Thanks for your efforts.
Thanks for the ping. I’d have probably missed it otherwise.
You can demonize them like Obama would, but the executives did perform well the first 3 quarters. The fact that the Democrat caused financial disaster occurred in the last quarter still does not cancel out the outstanding performance these executives achieved in the first 3 when there were Zero tax dollars involved. And if you actually check, you will see that there were no bonuses handed out to anyone for the 4th quarter of this year.
But go ahead, behave like a Democrat if you like and blame Free Enterprise and the fine working system they have developed over the last 80 years, for one very bad quarter of performance.
Of course there will be no bonuses coming in the future. Since the Government took control of the market.
The trick, John, in every one of your excellent satires is to figure out who actually did say say something outrageous. Dems regularly say very nutty things, so determining fact from fiction isn’t easy.
I saw an article on FR late last night that Obama wants the military to stop taking an oath to uphold the Constitution and start taking one to him (White House).
And much of that last quarter's bad performance hinged on the notion Obama had a chance to win this thing. People were probably yanking their money out of the stock market and stuffing it under their mattresses as Mobutu's poll numbers kept rising.
All the while, the media portrayed this 'Bush-caused economic disaster' as an impetus to drive Mr. Mobutu into the White House. The picture had to be painted dark enough for a majority to vote for "change". Think about this for a moment.
"It's going to get worse, before it gets better." (Mobutu's words, not mine).
Imagine belonging to a party where only bad news prompts people to vote for you. You'll not hear of Shining Cities on a Hill. What you will hear about are Tarnished Urban Centers in a Ditch. Over and over. Layoffs, firings, downsizings, bankruptcies, etc. will be used to 'create' the 'crisis' needed by this administration to empower it's plan (Chavez-ian socialization) to utilize this 'opportunity', as dreamt by Rham Emanuel.
Never underestimate the power of negativity when the media is running their generators at full speed.
Ceasar Chavez Mobutu Obama is the antithesis of what's needed in this country. Our schools suck (federally and state funded). Nearly half the people don't pay taxes (federal) and continue to enjoy the right to vote. This sucks.
Many states can't balance their budgets. These states also have significant illegal immigrant populations due to the lack of a wall to the south, with Mexico. This sucks.
The list of things eroding this country will not be addressed by this adminstration. They'll simply make matters worse by neglect and in some cases, supporting wrong causes. We, the working class must keep our eyes on what's really going on versus what 'they' tell us. 'They', if not exaggerators, are liars.
Everyone, man your posts.
Profit is the earnings of risk.
Depending on the government to bail you out as a risk reduction measure means a) you really didn't take a risk, so there shouldn't be any profit, and b) they get to tell you what to do, because you just took money from them.
If market capitalism depends on socialized risk and privatized profit, it's nothing but fascism.
Yeah. That's a lot of cash to pay in bonuses. But perhaps, it was 'earned'. Next, you'll take Obama to task for throwing one trillion dollars around to folks who haven't earned it, but may have supported his candidacy.
Slavery ended years ago, however, with this much cash, President Mobutu is assured of a plantation loyalty the likes of which any cotton-grower could only dream of. "F*ck the Freedom Train, I'm gettin' on the Gravy Train."
These folks are worth exactly what the market will bear .. if someone is willing to pay Jeff Spicolli $15 million per picture, more power to him.
It's not up to anybody but the market to detemine NFL, NBA, Hollywierd, Rush Limbaugh or any other person's salary.
Tha being said, I have a lot of trouble with tax payer $$ being given to firms in an industry that lost hundreds of billions of dollars and then them turning around annd handing out billions in bonuses ... some of those asshats need to be prosecuted and jailed for the scams they have pulled off.
Earned?! Earned! are you smoking crack? Companies issue bonuses based on performance and the welfare and earnings of their related industry. If we were going to measure the performance and earnings of Wall Street I’d say they’d be in the NEGATIVE. Especially when it comes taxpayer dollars.
Earned my ass.
I saw an article on FR late last night that Obama wants the military to stop taking an oath to uphold the Constitution and start taking one to him (White House).
Could you find that cite? You know, that is exactly what Hitler did. Of course, some German officers, like von Stauffenberg, had enough character to understand the moral course was to violate their oath and assassinate Hitler.
In my opinion, if Obama did this, most American officers will understand what the truly moral course should be.
That being said, I have a lot of trouble with tax payer $$ being given to firms - period...end of sentence.
I used to have a friend that was all for a cap being placed on individual's earning. Similar to what John has satired here. He was upset about the Baseball player's salaries, specifically The Big Hurt. (this was many years ago). I asked him, "Why do you go to the games? Aren't you one of those responsible for encouraging his salary?"
He said his going to be entertained at a ballgame has no relation to the amount of money given to the players.
As I said starting off this post, "I used to have a friend." I can't take stupidity.
I’ll see if I can find it. Give me a little bit.
Never mind. I found the original article on the ‘net. It’s satire. THANK GOD! I missed that on the FR posting of it.
Let's hope that it REMAINS as satire. With Obama-lini and his adoring groupies, I shudder to think what is possible in the next four years.
I completely took the article as truth because I wouldn’t put that past him. I never questioned it once.
Wall Street is the market. It's where money moves to productive enterprises from non-productive ones. It's 'return on investment', baby.
The Feds threw the logs on the track to de-rail this train. They put disincentives in place to force shakey loans and the subsequent rot in mortgage backed securities. While this was going on, they poured bucket-loads of cash into an economy that had no other place to go besides real estate and home equity, just to avoid a 'recession'.
Wall Streeters, whom you despise, made the best of all of this with your best interests (and theirs) in mind. Everyone got screwed when the bubble popped.
As to taxpayer's liability, there really is none. They shouldn't even be in the game. Markets correct themselves, no need to invite a sucker into the game. They'll only take their money and wind-up rewarding some who should have walked away losers.
Investments involve risk. Guys who know how to traverse this mine-field get a bonus. Now, the government Guys are going to try their hand at managing risk and return. Good luck.
Centrally planned economies have a history of rewarding non-productive enterprises much the way we seem hail-bent on funding crap like solar, biofuels, high mileage cars, etc. One thing is for certain: once these bureaucrats get finished throwing the proverbial wrench into the vast workings of things, there'll be no 'bonuses' to worry your little head about.
You'll be too busy trying to spread the 'misery' equally among yourselves to even remember a time when some 'earned' a bonus.
stop drinking the kool-aid
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