Dear Friends,
This week, I was just as outraged as I am sure many of you were, when I learned that millions of dollars were paid out in bonuses to employees at companies that received bailout funding. I am dumbfounded to think that some of the very people at AIG whose recklessness caused such harm to the financial system and our economy are now being rewarded. What’s more is that the Federal Reserve and the Treasury Department knew about these bonuses before they went out and did not aggressively act to stop them. The Treasury needs to step up oversight of those companies who have received federal bailout dollars and become a much more forceful watchdog of taxpayers’ dollars. A lot of people have written and called my office to express their anger, and with good reason. Up and down Main Street, businesses are closing, homes are being foreclosed on and people are in financial trouble, while workers on Wall Street continue to profit. But, folks in Iowa look at that and see business as usual. They see one set of standards for ordinary working families and a very different set for the privileged and wealthy. They see the federal government requiring union workers at GM and Chrysler – some making as little as $14 an hour – to renegotiate their contracts and accept lower compensation as a condition for federal relief for their employers. But the bonus contracts for millionaires at AIG are held up as somehow untouchable. Iowans are sick and tired of seeing those who break the rules get richer and richer. Congress must act now to recoup the bonuses paid out. We need to pass legislation that completely taxes those bonuses away. We need to send a message to AIG and other companies who received bailout money. They need to know business as usual will not be tolerated, incompetence and recklessness will not be rewarded and this kind of insult to Iowans and all Americans will not be allowed to stand. I made a speech on the floor of the Senate talking about the outrageousness of the bonuses. I encourage you to click here to watch that video.
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