Perino Defends AIG Bonuses: They Are ?Middle Class People? Who ?Are Expecting To Get This Bonus?
Posted in Main Blog (All Posts) on March 18th, 2009 4:33 am by HL
Perino Defends AIG Bonuses: They Are ?Middle Class People? Who ?Are Expecting To Get This Bonus?
Reports over the weekend that bailed-out insurance giant AIG will be paying $165 million in bonuses to executives “in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year” have sparked bipartisan outrage. Even ultra-conservative Bill Kristol expressed his anger in a column yesterday, asking rhetorically, “[I]f capitalism is to […]
Reports over the weekend that bailed-out insurance giant AIG will be paying $165 million in bonuses to executives “in the same business unit that brought the company to the brink of collapse last year” have sparked bipartisan outrage. Even ultra-conservative Bill Kristol expressed his anger in a column yesterday, asking rhetorically, “[I]f capitalism is to survive, shouldn’t the Republican party, the party that defends democratic capitalism, be particularly vehement in denouncing its excesses? Isn’t this a pretty spectacular one?”
However, it seems that Dana Perino, former President Bush’s press secretary, didn’t receive the memo. On C-Span’s Washington Journal on Sunday, Perino defended the bonuses:
PERINO: And the people who are working there that are middle-class people, are expecting to get this bonus. If they do not get it, maybe they won’t be motivated enough to try to help the company turn around and getting the company to turn around and be more profitable is important for all of us.
Perino then chastised the “rhetoric in Washington” that “can try to make things so black and white, and make things sound so easy — demonize people when I don’t think that that’s fair.” Watch it:
It appears that Perino either doesn’t know who is set to receive the bonuses or is unaware what it means to be “middle class” (i.e. those American households that generally make between $40,000 and $70,000 per year). In fact, while as of Sunday, it was unclear what the salary range is for the executives who are set to get the bonuses, as The New York Times reported at the time, some of them will receive more than $3 million in bonuses alone.
A new Wonk Room analysis notes that under Bush’s tax system, these AIG executives will collectively take home $7.5 million more dollars more than they would have in the 1990s. But President Obama’s budget would effectively eliminate the Bush tax bonuses, allow middle class families to save as much as $800 per year, and invest in health care, renewable energy and education.
South Carolina Republican State Rep: Sanford?s Stimulus Rejection Would Cost 4,700 Jobs
Last week, ThinkProgress reported that Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R-SC) proposal to reject $700 million in stimulus funds could imperil the jobs of up to 7,500 South Carolina teachers, because most of the money was meant to fill the education budget gap and keep schools operating. Today, State Rep. Dan Cooper (R) said Sanford’s proposal would […]
Last week, ThinkProgress reported that Gov. Mark Sanford’s (R-SC) proposal to reject $700 million in stimulus funds could imperil the jobs of up to 7,500 South Carolina teachers, because most of the money was meant to fill the education budget gap and keep schools operating. Today, State Rep. Dan Cooper (R) said Sanford’s proposal would result in 4,000 teachers losing their jobs, along with 700 prison guards:
He said the state budget — already cut from $7.1 billion to $5.6 billion in less than a year — would have to be slashed another 8 percent to 9 percent if the stimulus money is used as Sanford proposes.
He said that would trigger the layoffs of 4,000 teachers and the emergency closures of three to five prisons, with 3,400 inmates freed early and 700 guards losing their jobs.
Yesterday, the White House rejected Sanford’s waiver application to use the funds to pay down the state debt rather than fill in educational and public safety budget gaps. In response, Sanford submitted a new request asking to use the funds to to repay $577 million in school bonds. Pete Pillow, a spokesman for the state Education Department, said that Sanford’s new proposal would do nothing to save teachers’ jobs, and repeated the assertion that 4,000 teachers stood to lose their jobs.
This is still an attempt to pay down debt. It doesn’t to anything to help conditions [in schools] now. … All the districts now who are planning to lay off people and are saying we’re going to be short next year in terms of operational expenses, that wouldn’t be helped by any paying down of bonds. … So it’s the same song, different tune.
Rather than addressing the real educational crisis in his state, Sanford is instead complaining about an ad put out by the Democratic National Committee accusing him of “playing politics” with the stimulus. “I don’t think this approach of targeting ads against anyone who sees an issue a little differently represents the kind of so-called ‘change’ many people were voting for in November,” Sanford said in a statement.
Update This morning, Ronnie Jackson, the mayor of Allendale, SC — a town with a more than 24 percent unemployment rate — went on MSNBC to plead with Sanford to accept the stimulus funds. “We need it. We need it bad,” he said.
