Bush loophole used to bailout wealthy

[freegood]

http://www.chron.com/disp/story.mpl/nation/6165162.html

WASHINGTON — Congress wanted to guarantee that the $700 billion financial bailout would limit the eye-popping pay of Wall Street executives, so lawmakers included a mechanism for reviewing executive compensation and penalizing firms that break the rules.

But at the last minute, the Bush administration insisted on a one-sentence change to the provision, congressional aides said. The change stipulated that the penalty would apply only to firms that received bailout funds by selling troubled assets to the government in an auction, which was the way the Treasury Department had said it planned to use the money.

Now, however, the small change looks more like a giant loophole, according to lawmakers and legal experts. In a reversal, the Bush administration has not used auctions for any of the $335 billion committed so far from the rescue package, nor does it plan to use them in the future. Lawmakers and legal experts say the change has effectively repealed the only enforcement mechanism in the law dealing with lavish pay for top executives.

"The flimsy executive-compensation restrictions in the original bill are now all but gone," said Sen. Charles Grassley, R-Iowa, ranking member of the Senate Finance Committee.

The modification reflects how the rapidly shifting nature of the crisis and the government's response to it have led to unexpected results that are just now beginning to be understood.

More here

[Claydon]

Like I said before, this is all bullshit, and I am glad my congressman voted against this shit.

[Morfin]

I like how the White House is doing whatever it wants, pissing off the Republicans in Congress. It seems like Bush and Co. understand they will go down in history as a bunch of major-league assholes, so they figure, "WTF, might as well tell everyone to kiss our asses."

[taters]

Will all of your republican representatives so much as say mum about this potentially massive waste of tax money? Or will they clam up so as not to piss off their primary campaign contributors and supporters for the oh-so-critical 2010 congressional elections?

You can guess which one Im guessing theyll do.

[Stax]

Originally Posted by Claydon

Like I said before, this is all bullshit, and I am glad my congressman voted against this shit.

Sounds like the bill never got a chance. I'd say the original plan of just sucking it up and getting the bad paper off the market made sense, it just didn't happen.