It’s the Democrats, not corporations, at fault

By Fred Johnson

You know that Democrats are back in charge when corporations and corporate executives are blamed for all of our ills. When Bill Clinton ran for president in 1992, he promised to limit executive pay. That was done in 1993 when corporate pay was capped at $1 million. There was no provision for inflation so executive pay has been capped for 15 years.
    A college football coach can be paid $5 million a year, a baseball pitcher can be paid $170 million over five years, an ex-president can earn $10 million a year for speaking engagements, but the CEO of a multibillion dollar company can only be paid a salary of $1 million.      The salary cap has forced corporations to award bonuses, stock options, deferred compensation and golden parachutes to attract the talent they need.
    The country would be better off if the salary caps were removed and corporate executive pay was all above board like everyone else’s.  Democrats are trying to blame the mortgage crisis on corporate greed.
    But Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac were created under the Carter administration and given a mandate to issue sub-prime loans under the Clinton administration. When Republicans tried to shift the regulation of those two corporations from Congress to the Treasury Department in 2003; Barney Frank, the ranking Democrat on the Financial Services Committee made this now famous quote: “These two entities- Fannie Mae and Freddie Mac- are not facing any kind of financial crisis.
    The more people exaggerate these problems, the more pressure there is on these companies, the less we will see of affordable housing.” 
    The bill to shift regulation of Fannie and Freddie from Congress to the Treasury Department died in committee that year. If Congress wants to find who is responsible for the financial crisis, they only need to look in the mirror.  
    The American people were subjected to a comical farce over the past weeks as Congressmen tried to give a bailout to Detroit automobile companies.
    The hypocrisy peaked when automobile executives were criticized for flying to Washington on corporate jets and the executives were told to drive next time. Now my atlas shows that Washington DC is 533 miles from Detroit.
    This is an hour’s flight by corporate jet but a 10 hour drive by automobile. So instead of spending a one-hour flight gathered around a conference table planning their presentations, the executives spent 10 hours on the road in caravans with a cell phone in one ear and a laptop balanced on their knees. The cost of lost time by the executives would have more than paid for the jet flight.  GM stock holders should demand an explanation of why their top executives were forced to spend two days riding in cars to appear before Congress. 
    Taxpayers should ask our loony Congressmen two questions. The first is why should taxpayers bailout Detroit automakers in the first place?
    And the second is why Congress asked executives to drive to Washington DC, when Nancy Pelosi has her own private jet provided for by the taxpayers and Al Gore routinely flies his corporate jet to Washington to lecture Congress on reducing our energy use.