Brian Baird chimes in on his misguided, doing nothing for “the people”, vote for the bailout:
“In companies where the government is making a direct purchase, it will also place strict limits on executive salaries and will end the tax deduction for executive salaries over $500,000. For the first time in a long while, adult supervision is returning to Wall Street.”
Baird also praised the provision that provides a sales tax deduction for taxpayers in Washington and other states that have a sales tax but no state income tax. Baird first championed that cause during his first successful congressional campaign in 1998.
No, Rep. Baird, you are just plain wrong. This laughable executive salaries provision won’t rein in anyone’s pay as per this article, Bailout package unlikely to significantly curb executive pay and your sales tax deduction for the upper income crowd is not going to feed anyone on the bread line.
PS: Choosing not to do the wrong thing and not to mislead people was an “option”.
Viewpoint: Economist Dean Baker on the Bailout Panic (click to show/hide)
Update: For some curious reason the Columbian article, Baird: ‘Doing nothing was not an option.’ is no longer showing up on The Columbian site. You can still read Baird’s propaganda here.
Photo courtesy of Open Left and Matt Stoller
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Here is a Washington Post article again completely refuting Baird’s bullshit that the bailout bill will “place strict limits on executive salaries”. Bunk
I was so impressed by DeFazio on his No Bail Out plan, I faxed copies to Baird, Murray & Cantwell. As well as his 12 reason not to vote for the bailout, and the specific 5 reasons the executive comp limits were BS. DeFazio still has the papers on his site, great stuff. I also sent B, M & C a link and a transcript of the Private Treasury Teleconference where Paulson was explaining to the Bankers how none of the controls congress was trying to add woould have any teeth. it is on youtube, they sure don’t sound too concerned about anything except how to take advantage of the plan….
An executive compensation deductibility limit of $1 million has been in effect since the early 1990s.
How has that worked to curtail CEO compensation?
And lowering the limit to $500,000 (as the bailout bill did) or $5 will have no effect whatsoever on compensation payments just as the original IRS provision had no effect.
It is all a big scam on the taxpayers of the USA. And the people in Congress know it.
Something had to be done but what they did was not that something.