Kay Hagan on Wall Street Bonuses: Slap in the Face to Taxpayers; Wall Street Got Away with a Slap on the Wrist

October 28, 2008

GREENSBORO, N.C. – In an unbelievable report by Bloomberg detailing that some employees at Lehman Brothers will get the same bonus they received a year ago, and average bonuses at Merrill Lynch will actually exceed the amount employees received a year ago – an average of $110,000 per employee this year, versus $108,000 last year – State Senator and U.S. Senate Candidate Kay Hagan (D-Guilford) released the following statement, reacting in outrage to the situation.

“This is a slap in the face to taxpayers in North Carolina and nationwide. While Wall Street got away with only a slap on the wrist when the markets collapsed, working families were left to foot the bill,” said Kay. “Congress and the President approved an unprecedented bailout package, financed with $700 billion in taxpayer funds, in order to free up credit markets and prevent further financial collapse. Knowing how controversial and how expensive this bailout was to Main Street, it is obscene that Wall Street would secretly set aside billions of dollars for bonuses to reward their employees with more money than the average North Carolinian makes in several years.”

“This was one of my greatest concerns in the bailout package that Congress passed,” Kay continued. “With no limits on executive compensation, Congress had no way to reign in the same executives whose greed set this downward spiral into motion in the first place. It is unbelievable that this type of corporate greed is continuing, even after taxpayers were forced to swallow the bitter pill of an unprecedented Wall Street bailout that still has yet to do a thing for working families. We need leaders in Washington who hold Wall Street – and themselves – accountable to working families, not the corporate CEOs.”

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