Fired up over corp. greed

Rally demands AIG bonus return, support of unions

Gene Davis, DDN Staff Writer

Friday, March 20, 2009

WHERE’S THEIR BONUSES? — Activists showed up yesterday to the Downtown Denver Wells Fargo Bank to say they’re fed up with corporate greed coming at the expense of the rest of America. Photo by Gene Davis.

Dozens of fired-up Denver protesters showed up to Wells Fargo Bank yesterday to say enough is enough with “corporate America’s reckless greed,” adding that AIG executives should return their $165 million in bonuses immediately.

“We can’t have one more dollar of ours wasted in the wrong areas — we cannot afford it, it’s unacceptable,” said Sen. Morgan Carroll, D-Aurora. “The day for accounting, the day for reckoning is here.”

The “day for reckoning” included protesters delivering an oversized “REALITY” check to Wells Fargo Bank, one of the banks that the Service Employees International Union says epitomize an era of CEO and corporate excess at the expense of broader prosperity. The Denver rally was one of 35 held at major banks throughout the United States yesterday.

The speakers at yesterday’s rally urged the protesters to contact their lawmakers and tell them to support the Employee Free Choice Act and provide affordable and quality health care for all.

Terri Monley, who runs a small business with her husband, said the health care industry has their boots on the necks of small businesses like hers. Monley charged that change needs to come at the local level, and that the discussions on health care reform should not prominently include lobbyists from the health care industry.

“The scariest words in the English language are, ‘I’m from the health insurance industry and I’m here to help you reform health care,’” she said. “It’s up to us to take it back.”

Congress mulls bonus tax

Yesterday’s rally happened around the same time that the Democratic-controlled U.S. House of Representatives passed legislation to recoup most of the $165 million in retention bonuses paid to AIG employees.

The tax, which passed 328-93 in the House, would apply to executives with incomes over $250,000 who worked for companies that got at least $5 billion in government aid. That could ensnare others getting federal help, such as mortgage financing company Fannie Mae.

“The whole idea that they should be rewarded millions of dollars is repugnant to everything that decent people believe in,” said Representative Charlie Rangel, the Democratic chairman of the tax-writing Ways and Means Committee.

Fury over the bonuses at AIG and other large companies that have received federal bailout money threatens to undermine President Barack Obama’s efforts to solve the financial crisis and pull the economy out of a deep recession.

The Senate is expected to consider a different plan to recoup the bonuses, potentially a 70 percent excise tax.

But some Republicans are pushing for hearings before drafting and voting on legislation, raising questions about whether legislation will pass quickly.

Should have seen this coming?

Also, angry House Republicans blamed Democrats who control Congress and the White House, accusing them of allowing the bonuses to be paid in the first place. Some questioned whether the AIG bonus tax legislation that was approved yesterday would survive court challenges.

Rep. Mike Coffman, R-Colo., was among the Republicans who spoke out against the AIG bonus bill, arguing that Washington Democrats are trying to absolve themselves from the stimulus package that Obama signed into law at the Denver Museum of Nature and Science on Feb. 17.

“If anyone who voted for the 1,073 page so-called stimulus bill had actually read it they would have discovered a provision inserted by Senator Chris Dodd that allowed any firm receiving TARP funds to be able to award bonuses decided before February 11, 2009,” he said in a statement.

Some bonuses returned?

AIG Chief Executive Edward Liddy told Congress on Wednesday that he has asked employees to give back at least half of their retention bonuses and that some had already given back their entire bonuses.

But he said the payouts were necessary to retain top employees with specialized knowledge to dispose of $2.7 trillion in complex securities that ended up dragging the insurer to the brink of collapse last year.

Reuters contributed to this report.

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