Mr. President, you’re confusing me

Posted by Marc Hodak on March 29, 2009 under Politics | Read the First Comment

President Obama talking to bank CEOs about bonuses:

Show some restraint.  Show that you get that this is a crisis and everybody has to make sacrifices.

That must have been a little confusing for many of the CEOs in that room.  JP Morgan’s Dimon didn’t take any bonus.  Morgan Stanley’s Mack didn’t get one, either, for the second year in a row.  Citigroup’s Pandit didn’t get a bonus, although it’s difficult to consider how he could have justified one.  Goldman Sach’s Blankfein didn’t take any bonus, plausibly leaving about $20 million on the table.

In fact, President Obama, did anyone in the U.S. make a bigger sacrifice in dollar terms than Lloyd Blankfein?  Did any one you know give back $20 million?  Or any group that gave up the $200 million sacrificed by his peers?  Back in November, I suggested that the politicians would take credit for this sacrifice.  I was wrong.  They aren’t even acknowledging it.

So, what sacrifices is Obama talking about, then?

It’s very difficult for me as president to call on the American people to make sacrifices to help shore up the financial system if there’s no sense of mutual obligation.

Funny, last I checked, the only people of whom President Obama was asking sacrifices was the “wealthy.”  The sacrifice he was asking them to make was to accept a higher taxes on their earnings.  If he’s now asking the wealthy to accept lower earnings, isn’t he asking the rest of Americans to be making a sacrifice?