Posted on 10/22/2009 8:16:52 AM PDT by SonOfDarkSkies
White House pay czar Kenneth Feinberg was the driving force behind the move to order steep pay cuts from bailed-out executives, and did not even seek the president's approval before making his decision.
The Treasury Department is expected to formally announce in the next few days a plan to slash annual salaries by about 90 percent from last year for the 25 highest-paid executives at the seven companies that received the most from the Wall Street bailout. Total compensation for the top executives at the firms would decline, on average, by about 50 percent.
The sweeping decision, though, came from Feinberg and not from President Obama.
One official told Fox News that Feinberg from the start had the independent authority to work with companies and make such a call. Obama was never required to sign off before final decisions were made.
On Thursday, the chairwoman of the panel that oversees the $700 billion federal bailout fund said the Obama administration is serious about the new plan. In an interview, Elizabeth Warren said reports of pending slashes in executive salaries are "real."
"It's real in the sense that it says, 'Guys, you have to understand that you can't party on like it's 2007. If you're going to take taxpayer dollars, then the game has to change. In that sense it's real,'" she said on CBS' "The Early Show."
The seven affected companies are: Bank of America, American International Group, Citigroup, General Motors, GMAC, Chrysler and Chrysler Financial.
(Excerpt) Read more at foxnews.com ...
And Feinberg was never approved by the Senate, either.
Raw usurpation of power here.
He’s an Obama czar, that makes it an Obama decision.
what a joke.
The czars work directly for the President. Who are they kidding?
I guess Obama has stimulated the economy for executive recruiters!;-)
One official told Fox News that Feinberg from the start had the independent authority to work with companies and make such a call. Obama was never required to sign off before final decisions were made.
And Feinberg was never approved by the Senate, either.
Raw usurpation of power here.’
A coup? A financial coup?
Why would any executive worth his salt stay at one of these 7 locations that got TARP money?
The banks were pushed into making NINJA loans- no income/no job or assets— to people who could never hope to keep up the payments. Did they do other very speculative things that didn’t work? Yes.
Would they have done these speculative things if they could have controlled their own loan portfolios? I wonder.
Carter started this whole loan mess with the CRA in 1977. That says it all for me.
So?! He is part and parcel.
You think Feinberg can so much as take a piss without permission from Obama, Axelrod, and Emanuel?
This game has been played by Obama before, trying to blame Holder for the CIA prosecutions while saying he had nothing to do with it.
Yeah, and Tony Soprano didn’t shoot Big Pussy either.
The corporate heads were morons for accepting bailout money but they could redeem themselves some by raising holy hell in congress and the supreme court over these czarist decisions.
1) Obama appoints Feinberg to do something
2) Feinberg does it
3) The press says Obama is not behind the it
Truman: The Buck Stops Here
Obama: Pass the buck? What buck? I don’t know about the buck? You’re not a real journalist if you try to talk about the buck (which doesn’t exist any how) or what I did or didn’t know about the buck.
Obama will not be perceived as the hatchet man, so he will still look like a hero in the next election...see?
Uh huh. And Holder decided to prosecute the CIA interogators on his own. Obama couldn’t stop him!
We see a pattern here. “Present” Obama does not want to be accountable for any decision.
What happens if any/all of the seven companies say:
“F.U. Mr Fienberg, you have no authority to dictate business policy. We will continue to operate in the best interest of our shareholders. Our compensation system is none of your concern,”
????
(it’s what I would do, very loudly)
HOW in the HELL is this America??????? How can ONE person (OBAMA) in the Executive Branch reach his hand into the private sector and DICTATE how much money someone can make??
This is outrageous. It's beyond outrageous. It's absolutely Orwellian. It's so UNAMERICAN I'm having a tough time wrapping my mind around it.
I agree, lets start with all politicians and their lavish spending first !
So now Obama will try Alinsky tactic number what now? Stand by an action in his administration, don’t stop an action but allow a news story for him to say I didn’t think this up and take action.
ANY ACTION or comments Obama, his administration, his commie czars; says... does... feels... IS OBAMA.
We are not in Chicago any freaking more. You can’t play woosey pansy (only when another corrupt thug member gets cought-hide) in the WH.
Agreed.
This type spewage is like saying Osama bin Laden was not behind the decision to commit the terrorist attacks of 9/11, Mohamed Atta and his crew are to blame for the acts.
“As we work toward getting ourselves out of the recession, I hope that Wall Street and the marketplace doesn't think that we can return to business as usual,” he said.
“The buck stops with me,” Obama told reporters.
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