MoveOn Hits Obama For Bonus Remarks, Dem Senator Announces Bank Bonus Tax..

MoveOn.org is letting President Obama know that it does begrudge the multimillion-dollar bonuses being paid to Goldman Sachs CEO Lloyd Blankfein and and JPMorgan Chase CEO Jamie Dimon, both of whose banks were bailed out by the American taxpayer.

The liberal advocacy group urged its members Thursday to call the White House to let the president know that they object to his cozy relationship with Wall Street bankers ("I know both those guys; they are very savvy businessmen," Obama said in the interview that raised eyebrows when it was released Thursday. "I, like most of the American people, don't begrudge people success or wealth. That is part of the free- market system.")

Obama told Bloomberg News that he is just as shocked by banker bonuses as he is by salaries paid to professional athletes, noting that "there are some baseball players who are making more than that and don't get to the World Series either, so I'm shocked by that as well."

Citing athletic salaries is part of the standard rhetoric used by conservatives and the super-wealthy to justify exorbitant salaries. As surprising as it was to hear the rhetoric from Obama, MoveOn.org noted that there's a major difference between bankers and well-paid athletes: the bankers were bailed out with taxpayer dollars after they nearly brought the global financial system to the ground.

"There's one big problem: Every cent of bonus money Goldman Sachs has paid out in the last year belongs to taxpayers. That's because of huge taxpayer supports -- including $12.9 billion of bailout money funneled directly to Goldman through AIG -- none of which they have any intention of paying back," MoveOn writes in an email being sent to members Friday. "The fact is, the American people do begrudge wealth when it's taken directly out of their pockets. And 'savvy' doesn't accurately describe a businessman who brought the world economy to the edge of collapse."

UPDATE:

On the legislative front, Sen. Sherrod Brown (D-OH) will announce today the details of a new bill to tax bonuses "given to executives at firms that received financial help from U.S. taxpayers and use the revenues to help small businesses create jobs." In an email, Brown noted that AIG, which received $182 billion in government assistance, paid out more than $100 million in bonuses last week.

http://www.huffingtonpost.com/2010/02/11/moveon-hits-obama-for-bon_n_458405.html

remember

I said before he was ever elected

that the left was gonna howl at him for betraying them when he turned out to be a fairly moderate democrat

and now it's happening

his changeability after election is typical for most politicians

though, isn't it?