Presidential Candidates State Positions on Stock Market Bailout, CEO Greed

Shortly after his tour of Nova Machine Products in Middlesburg, Ohio, Republican Presidential candidate John McCain reaffirmed his reservations about the $700 billion Bush bailout plan to shore up a failing Wall Street. He admitted something must be done but had reservations about the money somehow finding its way into the pockets of already well-paid CEOs. His statements on September 23, 2008, are sure to resonate with taxpayers painfully aware of the discrepancy between their own paychecks and those of the top CEOs in the United States.

To be fair, John McCain is not the only Presidential candidate with reservations about the Stock Market bailout. Democratic Party Presidential candidate Barack Obama said that he would insist upon four conditions according to an Associated Press article. These included top CEOs having to "pay a price for their poor leadership" that led to this government action and some sort of help for families on the brink of losing their homes due to mortgage foreclosures.

The Presidential candidates' statements were made on the same day that the Senate Banking Committee heard testimony from Securities and Exchange Chairman Chris Cox, Treasury Secretary Henry Paulson, and Federal Reserve Chairman Ben Bernanke. The three administration finance leaders were on Capitol Hill urging the Committee to act quickly.

McCain and Obama were not alone in their concern over the historic Stock Market bailout and fears of CEOs with access to all that taxpayer money. The Chairman of the Senate Banking Committee, Democrat Christopher Dodd, and Republican Senator Jim Bunning of Kentucky both expressed the same type of position.

What will middle class American taxpayers think? Especially when the compensation packages of America's top CEOs still hover far above the salaries of the average American taxpayer.

Take, for example, Lawrence J. Ellison, owner and top CEO of Oracle, a software and services company. According to statistics provided by Scott DeCarlo of Forbes, Mr. Ellison earned a total compensation package of almost $193 million, $1 million of which was salary, almost $8.5 million in bonuses, and a whopping $181.82 million in stock gains.

What about Angelo R. Mozilo, the top CEO and founder of Countrywide Financial, whose total compensation package was $102.84 million in 2007? (Remember Countrywide Financial, the first mortgage company to go and now under Bank of America's umbrella?) He received a salary of $2.87 million and bonuses of $20.46 million with most of his compensation ($72.21 million) coming from stock gains. Compare those figures to the average household income in 2007 of $50,233.

With the historic Stock Market bailout and the statements made by the Presidential candidates regarding it, people are wondering which candidate will provide the leadership necessary to turn the economy around. The American public is watching and waiting to see if this governmental fix will do what it is meant to do. And, if it does, will it help the individual homeowner and taxpayer in time?

Resources:
Beth Fouhy. "McCain again opposes big payouts for executives", Associated Press.
Mark Landler and Steven Lee Myers. "Congress grills Paulson and Bernanke on rescue plan", International Herald Tribune.
Scott DeCarlo. "CEO Compensation", Forbes.
U.S. Census Bureau, U.S. Department of Commerce. Census Bureau Press Release, August 26, 2008, Public Information Office.
Msnbc.com. "Obama puts conditions on $700 billion bailout", Associated Press.