Nine out of ten calls coming into Iowa Senator Chuck Grassley’s offices are from people who oppose the federal government’s proposed 700-billion dollar Wall Street bailout. Grassley says the legislation that was rejected Monday by the U.S. House needs a significant overhaul before it can, or should, be able to pass Congress.
Grassley says, "One area where it’s gotta’ be beefed up is in the area of the insurance, so that more people in the House of Representatives who think the taxpayers are going to be stuck with this, and I can’t prove taxpayers wouldn’t be stuck with it, are not stuck with it." Grassley says there’s much "taxpayer outrage" at the perception corporate millionaires would be rescued from the fallout of their own risky financial decisions.
"The bill does not go far enough to make sure that they don’t reap benefits, golden parachutes, big salaries, and there’s things in the bill that deal with that but, quite frankly, it’s just window dressing," Grassley says. Loopholes still exist in the legislation, he says, so the wealthy financiers would be able to keep their riches and let the American taxpayers foot the bill.
"There are so many ways that existing people can wiggle out of it, do things to abide by the law so there’s no salary cuts, where there might not be any golden parachutes, have holes cut in them," Grassley says, "we ought to abandon the golden parachute. We ought to limit these salaries."
Grassley suggests that these people who led their corporations to the brink of financial ruin follow the Japanese example and take responsibility for their mistakes. Grassley says, "Come before the American people and bow their head as the Japanese corporate executives do, those that don’t commit suicide in Japan, and apologize." He adds, he wishes he could legislate something that would force these people to do just that.